Gōsutoai
by TheDeadGirlRisen
Summary: Naruto meets a strange snake-like man, later that night he encounters a deranged drunk man who stabs Naruto in his eyes. The snake man rescues him before the deranged drunk can finish the job, he even offers to try and help give Naruto his eyes back. He does, but Naruto can no longer see colors. A month or so afterwards he starts seeing shimmers that soon develop into people.
1. Chapter One: Eyes

**Gōsutoai**

 _ **By: TheDeadGirlRisen**_

 _Beta'ed by: N/A_

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Welcome to the first chapter rewritten. I got quite a few complaints about the way I switched to Orochimaru's Pov, so I will not be including his pov. I personally thought it was interesting and had good information in it.

 **Naruto age and Month:** 5, March. (If my math is correct)

 **Original Word Count:** 2345

 **New Word Count:** 3524

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 **Chapter One:** Eyes

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"Get back here you damn brat!" A guy shouted from behind a laughing golden haired boy.

"Catch me if you can!" The boy shouted as he continued running from the angry chunin who was a fluorescent pink with rainbow glitter covering him.

The young boy who had bright blue eyes and three whisker marks on his face looked around before he grinned as he slid underneath a woman's legs causing her to shriek. Then the young whiskered boy, who's name was Naruto, turned a corner and using the few precious seconds he had fell to the ground and rolled underneath the dumpster. The chunin turned into the ally and ran straight past Naruto's hiding spot.

As the blonde haired boy escaped his hiding spot snickering he heard someone growling behind him. Without turning to see who it was he booked it. The boy continued running and dodging, though every time he thought he had lost his pursuer they had found him again.

The blonde haired boy started making his way to a place he had just recently discovered this past week or so, it had lots of rooms and stuff so he should be able to find somewhere to hide until the pursuers gave up.

Naruto pushed himself to go faster as he heard the multiple shouts behind him, he may have used a few premade traps as distractions and made even more people chase him.

Whoops.

He ran up the stairs as quickly as he could and burst into the Hokage monument, which was primarily an evacuation point for civilians in case of an attack on the village, but it also had a ton of rooms in which there was a lot of cool stuff. Making his way through the mess of corridors he picked a room at random and opened the door and closed it as quietly as he could.

Raising a hand up he wiped off the sweat on his brow. His breaths were labored as he finally looked up to see what room he found himself in. Distantly his ears picked up the sound of shouting, which unfortunately was getting louder.

His eyes widened as he saw someone in the same room as him. The man had long black hair, and skin as white as the snow, then there were his eyes yellow and cat-like, or snake like. The man was putting something in his pocket.

Glancing quickly to the object next to the man he saw that they were coffins. "This way! I can sense the brats chakra!" A voice shouted sounding distressingly close to where Naruto was hiding. Deciding that since the pale man wasn't doing anything at the moment to ignore him he looked for a spot to hide.

The pale man's eyes narrowed at him before one of the corners of the man's lip twitched up. Before Naruto knew what was happening his mouth was covered and he found himself being melted into the wall right as the door slammed open. The young boy could feel himself being moved through the ground though the man didn't release him. Finally they went above ground and the pale man removed his hand.

Coughing he blinked as he realized that the strange pale man had saved him from the mob. Next time Naruto would have to figure out how to avoid a sensor ninja. Maybe Jiji would tell him if he asked nicely.

Naruto beamed at the strange man though, "Thanks!" He said happily.

The strange man just eyed him for a moment before he spoke, "Don't mention me to anyone, and we'll call it even." his voice had a bit of a hissing quality to it. Making Naruto think of snake's and with the strange man's snake like eyes he definitely seemed like a snake.

Naruto nodded and looked around trying to find something he recognized so he could make his way back home. After all the sun was starting to go down, and Jiji told him that he shouldn't be out late at night. Not recognizing where he was at or where to go to get back home the young blonde shrugged and trotted off after the strange snake man. "What's your name mistah? I'm Naruto."

The yellow eyes flickered over to him and twitched up into a small amused smirk, "You will just have to find out, won't you?"

Naruto pouted after another couple of steps he asked, "What was that awesome jutsu you did?"

"It is a jutsu I have modified from the original, it lets me travel through any material, so long as I have the material for it that is."

"Cool!" Naruto said his eyes wide, then he blinked as something clicked in his mind, "Wait? Doesn't that mean you're a ninja if you can do jutsu's?"

The man just seemed amused, though he didn't reply. Naruto pouted for a moment again before asking another question, "Where ya going?"

The snake like man raised an eyebrow at him an amused expression on his face, Naruto almost thought the man wasn't going to answer before he said, "To my lab."

"A lab? Does that mean your a scientist? What kinda science do you do? I heard from Jiji that there were many kinds of scientists. Or are you a doctor? Doctors have labs as well don't they?"

The snake man gave a creepy chuckle, "You sure are inquisitive aren't you Naruto-kun? I like to classify myself as both a scientist and a doctor."

"Inquisitive?" Naruto repeated slowly trying to repeat the word.

"It means you are very curious and ask a lot of questions."

"Ah!" Naruto said in realization nodding his agreement, looking around once more he asked yet another question, "Say mistah where we at?"

The man glanced at him again, "We are at the clan grounds, most of the more minor clans live in this area, though the Uchiha clan also live near here. The Hyuga are on the opposite end of this section of Konoha. While the Aburame live in between the two."

Naruto blinked processing all of that information and trying to memorize it. He never knew this was where they lived, he had wondered so he could prank them. The odd duo continued to walk.

The young boy continued looking around though he didn't see anyone else out on the streets here. "Where is everybody?" Naruto asked out loud.

"I assume something has distracted them," The snake man said in an amused tone. A few minutes later the pale man paused, "Follow that path, it will lead you to the market district, take care to not be spotted on the clan grounds, they tend to not like strangers."

Naruto beamed at the man, "Thanks Snake-san!" he said as he took off down the path as silently as he could while still running. A few minutes of running later he found himself entering into the market district, but it wasn't any area he recognized.

Slowing down to a walk he cautiously looked around. The sky was dark now night having fallen fully about ten minutes ago. The young boy shivered in the cool breeze brought in by the night. Despite this place being filled with noise, people chattering, music blaring and all that this place seemed to be way more creepy than the empty clan grounds.

A bottle smashed nearby causing the boy to startle. The smell of alcohol made him wrinkle his nose. He saw a couple a men enter into a building with a red light on it and the sounds of laughter. Shuddering he increased his pace trying to find out of this weird market distract.

Suddenly he felt as if he was being stared at. Increasing his pace even more he was almost about ready to run, when he was shoved him into a nearby ally causing the boy to stumble and fall, landing painfully on his butt. "Ehh who are you?" The man said blinking his slightly foggy eyes slowly as he stumbled a bit, "Been drinking to much I guess, thought you were a couple feet more to the left sor-" the man cut off as he blinked a couple more times, before his friendly, if awkward smile vanished, "You! Looks like tonight's my lucky night. I found a demon brat by itself!" the main said his eyes getting a glint in them. The man stumbled closer to him as Naruto got up.

The man shoved the boy into the alley wall leaning in close. The blue eyed boy scrunched his nose as the man's breath reeked of alcohol. "Can you please let me go stranger-san?" Naruto asked politely though his voice wavered in fear.

The man either didn't hear him or ignored him, and since the man was right up in his face staring him straight into his eyes the golden haired boy doubted it was the latter. Naruto was forced to stare into the man's dull green eyes. "You know what I hate most about you?" the man whispered with a growl.

"What?" Naruto whimpered out.

"Your fuckin' eyes. Always filled with that stupid innocent look. As if you haven't done anything wrong. Your such a monstah!" The mans words slurred together before he shook his head and continued on, "You don't even feel guilty for what you've done have you? For everyone you killed, including my son! He never got to have that innocent look, never got to see the sun, never got to enjoy life. And my wife! My beautiful wife, my radiant sunshine. She's gone as well 'cause of you! Her radiant sparkling eyes... I'll never see them again…"

The man trailed off his eyes tearing up.

"I-I think you got the wrong person mistah, I haven't killed anyone!" Naruto protested struggling a bit but he was unable to escape.

The man pulled him away from the wall a bit before slamming him back against it dazing the young boy, "Don't lie to me…" he hissed.

The man grinned crazily as he pulled out a pocket knife, keeping Naruto pinned to the wall with his remaining hand. "Those eye's… I hate them!" he shouted bringing the knife dangerously close to Naruto's face.

"STOP! PLEASE STOP!" Naruto screamed fearfully. He started thrashing trying to break free as the man brought the blade closer to his left eye. His violent thrashing caused his head to jerk forward and the knife pierced his eye. The blonde screamed in agony. The pain was worse than anything he had ever felt.

The man laughed in a crazed manor, "Looks like you took care of one of your eyes for me."

The man brought the small knife up to his other eye and Naruto focused on it frozen in fear. "LET ME GO! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME! ANYONE PLEASE!" He cried out in pain and fear before the man drove the knife deep into his eye. Pain coursed through him, worse than anything he had ever felt.

Why was no one helping? "Who would want to help a monster like you?" the man whispered as he traced the knife down his face all the way to his heart. "You killed my family you demon, now I'm gonna kill you!" The young boy froze unable to move.

Naruto whimpered in agony as the pain coursed through him, he waited unable to do anything but cry in pain for the man to finish him off. Slowly the deranged man's grip on him loosened and fell off to him, the blonde heard a thud as something hit the floor. The young boy was frozen in fear.

"Who- whos there?" Naruto whimpered out scared and in pain as silence permeated the air. As no answer came he slowly tried to move his head trying to see anything, but he saw nothing. Pain crashed through him and he started to cry.

"Calm down Naruto-kun." A voice spoke after another pause, it was the voice of the snake man, Naruto tried to look in the direction he thought the voice was coming from. His body protested at the movement.

"H-how can I calm down?" He sobbed, "I can't see anything! How can I be a ninja if I'm blind?"

There was a moment of silence before the snake man spoke up again, "Hm, I might be able to help." The snake man's voice had his normal silky qualities to it and the normal vague amusement to it the man seemed to have whenever he spoke.

Naruto figured that was the man's normal voice, but right now it annoyed him that the snake man still seemed amused even after Naruto had his eyes stabbed. Setting that annoyance to the side for now he cautiously asked, "You- you can help?" He choked the question out as he tried to refrain from whimpering in pain.

"Perhaps," the man stated slowly as if thoughtful if he could, "I might be able to replace your eyes."

Naruto whimpered nodding his head, which only brought about another wave of pain, "Please… it's dark I don't like it. It hurts..."

"I will help you Naruto-kun, but you will owe me a favor."

The young boy nodded, "Okay," he whispered quietly sniffling. It was after he agreed that he got the feeling he just made a deal with the devil.

"I'm going to pick you up now," the man warned before he grabbed Naruto. The young boy sobbed quietly scared that he would never be able to see again. Though the pain seemed to be going away. Faintly he felt the wind rapidly brushing past them, as if they were moving very fast. He was gently placed down on top of a cold metal table. The pain had vanished, but it was still so dark.

Naruto heard various things being shifted and paper being rustled, and then he heard the snake man muttering, "Hmm yes, this is good. It seems I have everything I need…"

There was a pause and some more rustling. "Alright Naruto-kun, I'm going to give you a shot to make you sleepy, do not resist."

Naruto gave a nod. A small prick on his arm caused him to wince. The boy laid down and waited for sleep to claim him. Minutes later he was asleep.

OoOoO- ? -OoOoO

Feeling a pull he frowned as he blinked and suddenly found himself standing before a black haired man with yellow slitted eyes and pale skin. The man chuckled in what he appraised to be a decent evil chuckle. He sighed inwardly as he found he couldn't move, Edo tensei it seemed. Hmpf, why did this man summon him, looking around he found that he was in some kind of laboratory and on the table was a kid, no older than 5. He scowled, "Why have you summoned me?" he asked after he found he could move his head at least.

The man glanced at him and didn't answer.

But the man did restrict his movements even more so now he couldn't even talk. "I am doing an experiment." The man answered a minute later as he came up to him.

The black haired man smirked as he came over and tried to take one of his eyes. He watched as the eye the slitted eye man had taken fell to dust and his eye reformed in his body. What did this man think he was trying to do? Was the man trying to find some way to take his eyes?! He growled deep in his throat and the man smirked at him. The man walked over to the boy and took out one of his eyes and returned to the edo tensei. He saw that the bright blue eye of the boy was damaged as if had been pierced.

The man once more took out his eye, but before his eye could reform them man shoved the boys eye. He felt his own eye reform using the material of the eye. The man grinned as it finished and then once more took the eye out from his eye socket.

He waited for the eye to turn to dust, but it didn't. Could the summoner have really managed to copy his eye this way? It seemed impossible but as the pale man looked at the eye he was able to notice that the eye was completely healed though the eye was a slightly darker shade of blue now. His own eye took a bit longer to reform. The slitted eye man returned to the boy and placed the eye back in the boy and used a medical ninjutsu.

The process repeated for the other boy's eye. The man smirked, "Thank you very much for your assistance," he said in a clearly sarcastic manner as he released the jutsu. He growled before his edo tensei body fell apart, and now he was back to being a spirit. "If you ever summon me again, and slip up and give me enough control, I will kill you for what you have done." He threatened even though he knew the man could no longer hear him.

Deciding he had enough he figured he should return back to where he was before the foolish man summoned him only to use him for some experiment. Pausing he glanced at the boy, the eyes remained even after the edo tensei was released, could it have actually had some effect on the boy. The man picked up the boy and used shunshin.

He reluctantly decided to follow, curious despite himself if what the man did had any effect on the boy. He made a henge as he found that he was in Konoha, no need to get the other spirits panties in a twist. Eventually the man stopped at an apartment, after having henged himself, and dumped the boy onto a bed. The apartment was a mess. Empty cups of ramen clothes and other junk.

The experimenter stared at the boy for a moment before he left. He sighed as he leaned against the wall, waiting for the boy to wake up, wondering just what the summoner had expected from what he did.

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

Naruto groaned as he woke up, his eyes felt sore, pulsing with pain. Over the next few minutes the pain slowly faded away. He cracked his eyes open and stared at his apartment roof, 'Where are all the colors?' Was his first thought as he sat up and looked around.

He blinked and yawned before he startled as he realized that he was seeing stuff, 'I can see again!' He may have only been blind for a few minutes, but it had felt like forever… not being able to see he hated it. Though not being able to see colors was weird, but at least he could see something.

"Ah it seems you are awake Naruto-kun," A familiar voice said. Naruto turned to see the snake man. His eyes which used to be yellow, were now just a grey, everything appeared in shades of grey up to the darkest of blacks, and the lightest of whites.

Naruto leapt up and tackled the snake man in a hug, "Thank you so much for returning my sight to me mistah!"

The man who returned his sight to him awkwardly patted him on his back. After Naruto finally released him the snake man asked, "How is your vision Naruto-kun?"

"Everything is in shades of grey… but I can see things more clear than before, like the time used to be blurry, but now I can see the numbers!" He said excitedly pointing to his clock as an example.

The man gave his creepy chuckle, though Naruto didn't think the man was purposely trying to be creepy, it seemed the man was just naturally creepy. "Kukuku, interesting… it seems that your vision has become monochromatic… and your eyesight most likely was degraded before I fixed them."

"Monochromatic?" Naruto repeated slowly.

"It means that you only see one wavelength of the visible spectrum." The snake man explained.

Naruto just frowned again not understanding. The man sighed, "It means you only see one color."

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed before blinking, "Wait, so how did you heal my eyes Snake-nii?"

The snake like man didn't answer.

"Will I ever be able to see colors again?" Naruto asked after a moment.

"I do not have any answers for you, perhaps they will, but they might not," The man's head tilted to the side and his eyes flickered to the window, "I must be going now, I have been delayed for to long. Remember Naruto-kun to not mention me to anyone, and that you owe me a favor," The snake man said as he slowly started sinking into the ground. "Goodbye Naruto-kun."

"Goodbye Snake-nii!" Naruto said waving as the man's head fully disappeared in the ground.

The young boy collapsed back onto his bed afterwards, wondering what he should do. Eventually he got up and changed his clothes. Deciding to get some well deserved ramen he went to his favorite place of all time. Ichiraku's ramen. Happily eating the food he chatted happily with the ramen stand owner and his daughter.

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 **A/n:** This is an edited chapter, New edited chapters will be formatted like this so you can easily tell the difference of what has been edited and not. Also I have no idea how often I will give edited chapters, since I am both editing old chapters and writing new chapters. This edited version will also hopefully help me fix some plot holes and everything. I hope that for those of you familiar with Gosutoai like the new rewritten chapter. For those of you new, I welcome you to this crazy story of mine and I hope you enjoy.

 _A/n 2:_ If you are a guest reviewer, I am sorry I am unable to message you and answer your questions or suggestions that you make and have a chance to explain why I do things as I do.


	2. Chapter Two: Shimmer

Gōsutoai

 **By:** TheDeadGirlRisen

 **Beta'ed by:** _N/A_

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 **Author Notes:** Welcome to the new second chapter, which previously was the third. I'm at least trying to fix the mess that was the first six chapters, (Now five as I work on this), and maybe do more later, maybe. I am not colorblind, so if someone who is colorblind and reads this and is like this is all wrong, well it's because I don't know. If that same person wants to message me and tell me what it's like, I would love to know.

 **Naruto age and Month:** 5 - 6 Time passes till October 10th.

 **Original Word Count:** 875/2078 (Part of chapter used/ Total chapter length.)

 **New Word Count:** 2059 (This is a bit of a throw off since I'm splitting this into two chapters.)

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 **Chapter Two:** Shimmer

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It took him a month to start getting used to the lack of colors. What he had once took for granted, the blue skies, the green grass, were now a bleak lifeless looking grey. It made the world a lot more different. With everything being grey, Naruto found that it was easier now to ignore people, after all if he wasn't paying attention to them they just blended in with the background.

Then one morning after waking up, he noticed something strange. In the corner of his room the air seemed to shimmer, and waver as if something was there, kind of like a heatwave. With a frown, he went over to the shimmer and hesitantly poked it, the shimmer moved to the side. His stomach rumbling he decided to get some food before trying to figure out what that shimmer was.

A couple hours later he still had no idea what it was, only that it would move if he tried to poke it, and that it followed him if he left his apartment. When he left he noticed that there were other shimmers around, but no one else seemed to notice them. Gathering up his courage he asked a random civilian if they could see the shimmers.

"No. Now leave me alone," was the bit out answer before the civilian hurried away.

Naruto gave a small smile, that had been one of the nicest civilians he had met. Deciding that if no one else could see them, it would be better if he couldn't see them he set out to try and ignore them. He didn't need to give the civilians any more of a reason to think he was a monster.

As another month passed the shimmer seemed larger, more oval like. Then, as the third month passed since he had lost sight of his colors he saw that the oval shimmer seemed to become more defined, looking more and more like a person. The shimmer that followed him was the most detailed, but the others were starting to become more defined as well. Naruto also noticed that at times the shimmer that followed him seemed to disappear, but it always seemed to come back.

By the end of third month, each shimmer looked the same as a normal person, yet no one else could see them. It was at this time that he decided he needed to figure out what had happened and what that mysterious snake man had done to his eyes.

So he went to the library, the librarian, an old woman gave a nod to him. She had once been a ninja, and thus was kind to him. He went up to her and asked if she knew who the person was. He described what he could remember, pale skin, yellow slitted eyes, black hair. She seemed to pale and asked where she had seen him.

Remembering his promise to the man, Naruto shrugged and said that he had overheard a couple people describing him. The librarian relaxed a bit and said, "His name is Orochimaru, he is one of the three sannin. He is a missing nin for experimenting on children, if you do see him make sure you tell the Hokage or the ANBU."

She went to a shelf and after a moment pulled a book, "Here, if your interested in learning more about the three sannin this is the book."

"Thank you," he said gratefully as he took the book and started reading.

When he was done he was horrified. Yet, Naruto didn't want to break his word, he wouldn't tell anyone Orochimaru had been in Konoha, besides that was three months ago, surely it wasn't that big of a deal. Naruto could only hope that the snake sannin forgot that he owed him a favor.

Naruto returned to his apartment, the stalker-shimmer following him again. Getting into his apartment he studied the shimmer, it, or rather he, had long spiky hair, which seemed black. One of the man's eyes was covered by his hair, but the other seemed to be black. He looked as if he was judging Naruto as he stared back with his arms crossed in front of his top that had a high neck guard. The young boy couldn't tell what color it was, but it seemed to be a dark grey. Underneath the shimmer had lighter grey pants.

"What are you…?" Naruto asked hesitantly, afraid of what the answer would be, was this a ghost? He hasn't really done anything harmful, but no one else could see him.

Naruto saw the shimmers mouth moving, but no sound came out. "I can't hear you," Naruto told the shimmer. It looked like a person, so the young boy was going to assume it was a person. The shimmer frowned a bit.

"I wonder if I should tell Jiji… he would believe me," Naruto wondered out loud. He saw the shimmer shake his head. "I shouldn't tell him? But why?"

The shimmer once more tried to speak, but Naruto couldn't hear him. Maybe he should learn how to read lips, that would be useful if he wanted to know what the shimmers were saying. The shimmer frowned. Suddenly in his hand was a leaf headband. The shimmer pointed to it, then to himself. "You're a ninja?"

The shimmer gave a nod. Then the headband disappeared and the shimmer held its hands out, a look at me sort of gesture. "Your a secret ninja?"

The shimmer smirked and held up his hand displaying 3. Naruto frowned confused, the shimmer sighed and pointed to his mouth, then to Naruto and held 3 fingers again.

It took a moment, but Naruto figured out that the shimmer meant the third word he had spoken, "Secret?"

Once more the shimmer gave a nod, a small smirk accompanying it. Thinking back to the conversation Naruto asked, "You want me to keep you shimmers a secret?"

The shimmer raised an eyebrow, but he did give a nod. "But why should I keep you a secret?"

Naruto's personal stalker shimmer brought out the headband again, then he did a zipping motion over his mouth. The headband probably meant a generic ninja, rather than specifically the shimmer, and the zipping motion was a universal sign for someone keeping quiet. So hesitantly he asked "Ninjas keep secrets?"

He answered with a confirming nod. "So you want me to keep the fact I can see you a secret, because ninjas keep secrets?"

The stalker gave a nod. Naruto shrugged, and decided that for now he would keep it a secret, after all it wasn't like keeping the secret would harm anybody. The rest of the day he and the shimmer continued to talk, or rather Naruto asked questions and tried to figure out what the shimmer was trying to answer.

The next day it was the first of June and so Naruto made his way to the Hokage's tower, though he couldn't help but feel as if someone was watching him. As soon as he entered the building he noticed that once again the stalker-shimmer stopped following him. This was the only time the shimmer stopped following him.

Last month he had suspected it had been because of the shimmer he had seen in Jiji's office, this month maybe he would be able to figure out who it was. Entering the office he smiled at the Hokage, "Hello Naruto-kun, how are you?"

"I'm doing fine Jiji," Naruto answered and handed over a couple pieces of paper.

As the Hokage asked him the standard questions, Naruto glanced at the shimmer. He had what looked like very light grey hair and wore a happuri. The shimmer had three weird marks on his face that were a darker shade of grey than the rest of his face. He wore a dark grey armour over a black looking bodysuit, and the top of the armour was framed by white fur.

He looked familiar.

Naruto stared out the window as Jiji asked him about his thoughts on the upcoming school year. Where he would be starting the merged academy. "I'm excited… but what if the kids don't want to be friends with me?" He asked turning to look at the person he considered his grandfather.

The Hokage just smiled and said he was bound to make friends, Naruto listened to the comforting words and relaxed a bit. Glancing out the window again, he looked at the Hokage monument and blinked in surprise, the second head on the wall kinda looked like the shimmer. He knew they were the previous Hokages, the Shodai, Nidaime, Jiji, and the Yondaime. But he didn't know their names.

"Say Jiji, what are the Hokages names?" He asked.

The third gave him a smile as he answered, "The Shodai Hokage was Hashirama Senju who founded the village. The Nidaime Hokage was his brother, Tobirama Senju. Who was also my sensei," Naruto glanced towards the shimmer to see him with a small smirk, a proud look on his face.  
I am of course the Sandaime Hokage," The third amusedly spoke. "And the Yondaime Hokage was Minato Namikaze."

With that the meeting returned to normal and Jiji gave him a little bit of money for him to buy food, and other supplies. Then his Jiji gave him another couple sheets of homework to do, mostly writing and reading sheets with a bit of vocab memorization.

As soon as he exited the tower his stalker-shimmer continued to follow him. As he walked back to his apartment, he saw a couple of the Uchiha police people helping another Uchiha police person to walk towards the hospital. He was too far away to see why they were helping him, but he could hear what the people were saying.

They spoke of how his eyes had been stabbed, and that he was going to the hospital to have them fixed, apparently enemy ninjas tended to go for Uchiha eyes. It may take them out of that battle, if they survived then the hospital was able to heal their eyes.

If the medics had been able to heal his eyes, then what had Orochimaru done? It must have been some kind of experiment, as that is what Naruto read that the snake sannin did, but what exactly he had done was a mystery.

He may not know the specifics, but Naruto suspected that whatever it was had given him the ability to see the shimmer people he now saw. After all, no one else could see them, and he had only started to see them after Orochimaru had 'fixed' his eyes.

The next few months passed with him working on trying to learn how to read lips so he could communicate with his stalker. Who from what Naruto had figured out was following him mostly out of boredom. Stalker-Shimmer had disappeared a few times, but he always reappeared eventually.

It was through studying Stalker-Shimmer that he learned that the shimmers were see through, though it was hard to tell as the grey blended in. Learning this though made it slightly easier to ignore random shimmers in the street. Then again he tended to ignore most people as everyone, shimmer and living both seemed to give him looks of disdain and scorn. With the only exceptions generally being ninjas.

Naruto had asked his stalker if he was a ghost or a spirit and the man had just gave one of his usual smirks. Naruto took that as confirmation. If this had been a few months ago, he may have freaked out a bit, but the shimmers didn't seem harmful, in fact his stalker was pretty helpful and always tried to answer his question, though usually if it required more than yes or no it was a bit of a guessing game to figure out what was trying to be said.

Now though it was October tenth, and Naruto was dreading it. People seemed to be extra spiteful today. The boy glanced down at his vocab sheet to make sure he had used those words correctly. He grinned as he saw he had used them in the right manner. Jiji would come visit him later today, but for now he was happily doodling. Currently he was trying to draw what the Hokage looked like, trying to match the greys with what he remembered and hoping that they were the correct color.

His stalker seemed amused when he showed him the drawing, Naruto sometimes felt it was odd to call the shimmer a stalker, yet the shimmer decided to not give his name. That was okay though, Naruto kinda liked the mystery.

* * *

 **A/n: I hope you enjoyed the newly edited chapter two!**


	3. Chapter Three: Stalker

Gōsutoai

 **By:** TheDeadGirlRisen

 **Beta'ed by:** _N/A_

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Welcome to the new chapter three, which is part two of the old chapter two.

 **Naruto age and Month:** 5 - 6 Time passes till October 10th.

 **Original Word Count:** 960/2078

 **New Word Count:** 2154

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 **Chapter Three:** The Stalker

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 **OoOoO-** **Stalker-Shimmer** **-OoOoO**

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He had been following the child for a few days when the summoner used the edo tensei on him again. Once more the man tried to replace someone's eyes, yet even though he used the same trick as last time, it did not work. This seemed to frustrate the snake like man, which of course made him amused, and relieved. Seeing as the summoner's experiment had failed the yellow eyed summoner released the edo tensei.

About a week after that he was summoned again, though once more the experiment failed. He wasn't sure why it failed, but he was glad that it did. Neither did he like being summoned as such, whenever he did he always forgot what he had learned after he had died.

A month after he first started following the boy, Naruto, he was starting to get bored. Nothing seemed to have happened. He did not know what he suspected, but even if his eyes did give the kid his dojutsu, than it would probably be activated in a normal manner. It all changed though when the boy seemed to stare right at him, a puzzled look coming over his face.

Then the boy poked him in his stomach area. He had of course moved and the boy's eyes tracked him. Curious he questioned, "Can you see me?" The boy did not respond and continued on with his day.

The next month there was another summoning, and the summoner seemed to be getting frustrated at the lack of a repeated success. As for Naruto, the boy seemed to be staring at him and the other spirits a confused expression on his face.

Then the third month when the boy finally could see them clearly, or that's what the boy said after they started talking. Talking of course being relative phrase, it mostly revolved around the boy asking questions and him trying to figure out a way to answer as the boy could not hear him.

He did learn that the Summoners name was Orochimaru, and was apparently a missing-ninja. Naruto was even starting to learn how to read lips, though it was slow progress.

At the start of the fourth month, Naruto was preparing to go meet that Hokage of his once more. As he always did, he henged himself into someone who looked like they could be related to Naruto. No need for Tobirama to be alerted to the fact he was here. Once again, Naruto failed to react to him henging, it seemed as if the boy did not notice, though when he made the henge sign and changed in front of the boy, the boy only showed his confusion about the hand sign.

As the boy entered the Hokage tower, he stayed outside, there was no need for Tobirama to learn he was here. He raised an eyebrow as a random spirit approached him, "Is it true, can that boy see us."

He gave a sneer, "Do you believe everything you hear?"

The spirit gave an affronted look, "Jeez I was just asking a question."

He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes as he started to release a bit of killer intent. Nothing to much, or Tobirama would notice, but enough to get this idiot to leave him alone. The spirit left. He gave a sigh as he waited, it was a shame that he had not seen nor heard anything about Hashirama, he wanted to apologize for his actions. It would seem that his friend had chosen to pass on, so he wished his friend a happy afterlife, even if it meant he was unable to apologize.

Naruto soon exited carrying a small stack of paper, which from his previous months of watching the boy he knew contained basic things to help the boy write and expand his vocabulary. He sedately followed after the boy a small smile on his face. "Stalker-shimmer, do you like ramen?" Naruto asked peering at him through his bangs as he looked up.

He shrugged in answer, and the boy started rambling about ramen. It was strange, but he was quickly becoming accustomed to the nickname Naruto had given him. The boy seemed more amused than annoyed or upset at not knowing his name. He thought that the boy would make more effort to learn who he was, but the boy seemed content not knowing.

Naruto stopped at the ramen stand and started chatting with the two keepers of the stall. They then returned and Naruto placed his assignments on the table and began to work on them.

A few more months had passed since then and Naruto started to learn how to read lips. He was even starting to train the boy. Nothing too strenuous, just a few light exercises and a few of his basic taijutsu stances and moves. Currently it was October 9th and the two were at the apartment sitting at the table as Naruto ate his dinner.

"I am both dreading and looking forward to tomorrow," The boy stated after a few minutes of silence.

He tilted his head questioningly.

"The villagers are always extra mean on my birthday, but Hokage-jiji will come by and give me a present."

He frowned wondering just why the village hated the boy, surely they did not hate him for hosting the Kyuubi? He was aware that the civilians seemed to know of the boys status. Though why they knew, he did not know. He could not fathom a reason of why the civilians had to be informed of who the jinchuuriki was. Naruto went into the shower with his clothes to prepare for his bed.

He chuckled as he remembered an incident after Naruto realized that the 'shimmers' were in fact people. The boy had taken a shower, and had left his clothes in the bedroom, Naruto started to exit only to turn a brilliant shade of red as the boy saw him standing in the corner as per usual. "OUT!" The boy had screeched his face scarlet. The boy was as red as a tomato. It had been amusing to see the boy so riled at him standing there.

Naruto hadn't appreciated the amused grin on his face as he started reaching into the bathroom and throwing things at him. Chuckling to himself he left the room. After that incident, Naruto always made sure to bring an extra pair of clothes in with him.

He sighed as the boy went to sleep after saying goodnight to him, it was always boring during the night. As a spirit there was no need for him to sleep, though it helped to pass time. Heading to the living room he laid on the couch. He may not need to lay down to sleep, but even after all these years it felt weird to be able to sleep standing up.

He was not a Nara after all.

Sleep was also not the correct term, since sleeping was something a living person needed. Mostly it was just him closing his eyes and turning his… thoughts? Consiouss? Off. It was weird to try and figure out how to describe, which is why he just stuck with sleeping. During this, his body would fade away.

Perhaps this was a pseudo form of moving onto the pure realm. He did not know. As the sun rose up signaling the dawn of a new day he allowed himself to wake up. Only a couple hours later Naruto woke up and went to the kitchen to start cooking. He followed after the boy and helped him. The two had managed a system where Naruto would look at him before doing something to make sure what he was doing was correct.

Naruto was unable to cook simple things by himself, about the only thing he could do was a cup of ramen. That was to be expected though since the boy was a young child, he would learn in time how to cook. As the boy sat down and ate, he caught Naruto's eyes, "Happy Birthday Naruto," He mouthed slowly so the boy could read his lips.

The beaming grin the blonde gave him was blinding as the boy thanked him profusely. He just smiled fondly at the boy and listened as the boy rambled and ate.

After the boy ate his breakfast he pulled out some paper and a handful of crayons and started to doodle. Eventually the doodles were faintly recognizable as himself and Naruto. Of course none of the colors were right. Naruto had drawn himself as having bright green hair and pink eyes, with clothes that were a neon blue. The doodle that bore his likeness at least had black hair and eyes, but his clothes were a truly ghastly shade of orange and yellow.

Still, despite how badly the colors clashed, it was amusing to see the boy scrunch his eyebrows together as he concentrated on the crayons. His tongue would poke out a bit as he carefully observed a crayon before nodding and using the crayon. It was entertaining that Naruto would concentrate so hard, despite seeing the colors in various shades of gray.

After another ten or so minutes the boy was finished with his drawing with a large beaming smile. "What do you think?" Naruto asked him.

He chuckled and gestured towards the wall, honestly the drawings were great. Naruto beamed at him and pinned the drawing onto the wall, next to his other doodles. The boy then skipped out of the room and into the main room of the small apartment.

He glanced towards the center drawing, which was him depicted with proper colors. Naruto had asked him which colors to use for which bits and so he had pointed out the crayons whenever the boy started working on something that needed a different color. The boy was so happy with what little he managed to scrounge from the ground, broken discarded crayons that were often missing their wrappers. Naruto's best crayon were often nicked from the alleyways near restaurants.

Pausing in his thoughts he tilted his head as he heard a commotion coming from the main room of the apartment. "You damn demon, you killed us you monster! I can't wait until you die! I hope someone kills you!"

His eyes narrowed in anger and he quickly henged himself into a random appearance before he entered the main room by going through the wall. He quickly observed the situation as he stalked forward to stand in front of Naruto. There were about five or so ninjas in front of Naruto, "What, pray tell, do you lot think you are doing here?" He questioned them crossing his arms.

The lead spirit looked affronted at being interrupted, "Move out of the way!" He snarled, "We have heard that the demon brat can see us, and we want it to know just how much pain and suffering it has caused and what awaits it on the other side," The spirit gave a truly pathetic sneer, "You're just one lone spirit, stand aside or we will dissipate you, we are jounin after all."

The other cohorts of the lead ninja brandished their weapons threateningly. He raised an eyebrow and shook his head, forming a tiger hand sign. A small smirk curled at his lip as he thought the jutsu name, ' _Katon: Majestic Flame Demolisher,'_ perhaps using his largest fire jutsu was a bit overzealous, but he hated idiots.

By the time the flames vanished the nitwits were gone, either due to being dissipated, or by fleeing. So long as they did not come back, he did not care. Shaking his head he turned around to check on Naruto and make sure the boy was safe.

The boy was beaming at him, "Thank you Guardian-shimmer!" The boy said nodding his head as if he had just decided something of great importance.

He raised an eyebrow and slowly asked, "I thought I was Stalker-shimmer?"

"You were! But, now you're Guardian-shimmer, at least until you tell me your name," Naruto responded cheerfully. He chuckled at the boy, a small smile lifted the corner on his lips. Yes, sticking around was definitely more amusing than following that apprentice of his. He shook his head banishing those thoughts. He now had a chance to do something about it, especially since this boy could see and learn from him.

That was for later thought. Today was Naruto's sixth birthday and he wanted to make sure the kid was happy. The fools of the village did not deserve such a special child who wanted to protect them even after all they had done.

He watched over the boy even after the Hokage of his had come to visit and they celebrated, just the two of them. He watched, a silent protector, as the Sandaime told Naruto he would be enrolled into the academy when the new term started in January.

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 **A/n: Alright end of chapter three! I hope you enjoyed!**


	4. Chapter 4

The next couple months passed peacefully, but his ability was developing even further, he was starting to be able to hear the shimmers. At first he had thought he had imagined hearing guardian-shimmer scoff in response to something Naruto had said, but a little while later when he was rambling on about how excited he was for the academy he had heard the man when he asked why.

At first it was only sparsely that he heard the shimmer but slowly the ability developed and by the time christmas came he was able to hear guardian-shimmer about 50% of the time, while the others were only about half that. Naruto figured that it was because he spent more time around guardian-shimmer, the shimmer just smirked at him and did a hair ruffling motion. Naruto pretended he felt it and just smiled.

Anyways it was christmas and that meant jiji was coming to visit! Guardian-shimmer sighed at his excitement as Naruto bounced on his feet waiting for the knock. When it came he opened the door and let jiji in though at the same time another shimmer came though the wall. And suddenly the air became tense as Guardian-shimmer stared down the Nidaime-shimmer.

"Hello Naruto-kun, how are you today?" Jiji asked holding something in his hand oblivious to the tense air as the two shimmers continued there staredown.

"I'm doing fine!" He said excitedly though he kept glancing at the two shimmers.

The hokage frowned at him, "Is everything alright?"

Naruto debated whether to tell him or not, "So you are the child who can see us." The Nidaime-shimmer said. Naruto glanced over to him to see him saying something else but he couldn't hear whatever it was.

Guardian scoffed in reply though and said, "It is smart to keep his abilities a secret, it is a common practice among shinobi after all, it is his choice whether he tells the third or not."

"Naruto-kun?" The hokage said, and Naruto blinked.

"Sorry!" He apologized.

"Why don't you tell me what's wrong?" Jiji asked kindly with a smile.

Naruto bit his lip before he nodded. "Alright."

That got the two shimmers to stop glaring at each other and look at him. "This is gonna make me seem crazy." Naruto started hesitantly.

Guardian put his hand over Naruto's shoulder, a gesture of comfort Naruto appreciated even if he couldn't feel it. The third just smiled kindly, "Its okay Naruto-kun, I'll believe you."

Naruto slowly nodded then said, "I can see dead people, spirits I guess, though I tend to call them shimmers."

Sarutobi blinked, clearly not expecting that. "Oh?"

"Yeah, I can now see them pretty clearly, I can't really hear them perfectly yet, I can hear Guardian-shimmer about fifty percent of the time now, and others about half that."

"Guardian-shimmer?" The third parroted.

"Uh Huh! He's the shimmer that I used to call stalker shimmer, until he protected me from some mean shimmers, though at that time I couldn't hear shimmers at all but they had the same mean look as the villagers do."

"Why have you not mentioned this before?"

"Well it never really was an issue, and I try to ignore the shimmers cause I don't want them knowing I can see them, and since Nidaime-shimmer is always in your office when your there…" Naruto said shrugging.

"Nidaime-shimmer?" Two voices echoed, one of them said shimmer who was giving him a flat unimpressed look, and the other was the third. Naruto the mature boy he was stuck his tongue out at the nidaime who narrowed his eyes at him for the disrespect.

"Yeah, from what I have gathered from guardian-shimmer after you die if you had chakra you become a spirit to help protect the living from the undead and demons and such. Of course you can always pass on completely if you wish, or if your seriously 'wounded' in a fight with another shimmer or one of the creatures of the in between then you can be forced to pass on completely."

The third stared at Naruto. "Who is this guardian shimmer of yours?"

"I don't know his name, I haven't bothered to really try and find out, though I could if I wanted to."

"What does this guardian of yours look like?"

Naruto grinned and went to his wall of drawings in the other room, he looked at them and grabbed the one he was pretty sure was the correct color drawing he had two of these, one that was the correct color and one that was the wrong colors, he couldn't tell them apart, but it was 50/50 chance.

He went to go show the Hokage and then heard his guardian sigh, "You grabbed the wrong one." which meant he grabbed the one that his guardian shimmer said gave him dark purple hair pink shirt and a lime green pants. The nidaime saw it and Naruto heard him snickering.

Naruto blinked and rubbed the back of his head, "Whoops." He went to grab the other one. "Sorry jiji! This is the correct one."

The hokage raised an eyebrow at the fluke. Naruto sighed and said, "I'm colorblind." The thirds eyes widened in surprise.

"Your colorblind, I guess that does explain those drawings." The third mused.

"You mentioned you could see Tobirama-sensei?" Jiji asked after a moment of looking at the drawing.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah he typically is always in your office, though he followed you here today," Naruto turned to said person, "Why did you come out of the office Nidaime-shimmer?"

The man stared blankly at him and stated in a flat voice, "A couple other spirits told me that you could see them, I came to investigate that claim."

Naruto nodded, "Ah."

"Sensei's here?" The third repeated seemingly in shock.

"Yes he is, he was always standing behind you in your office."

"Where is he standing now?" The third asked. Naruto pointed to Tobirama. The third looked in that direction. "Would you mind if I conversed with him and have you tell me what he says."

"I don't mind, but I might not hear the response always."

As if proving his point Tobirama said something Naruto couldn't hear.

"How are you doing sensei?" Sarutobi asked.

The nidaime rolled his eyes, "That is the first question you ask after all these years Saru-kun?"

Naruto repeated it word for word and tried to copy the mans tone of voice. Jiji chuckled, "Yes, this is quite unexpected afterall."

"You've become quite old Sarutobi."

The third hokage just chuckled, "Indeed I have, what do you think of Konoha sensei?"

Naruto watched as the nidaime tilted his head slightly to the side for a moment before responding, though Naruto couldn't hear what it was the nidaime said.

"Sorry jiji I couldn't hear what he said."

His guardian stood behind him mostly just watching the events and standing defensively. Naruto got the feeling he and the Nidaime didn't get along very well. "I said that Konoha while having come along further in some ways has gone backwards in others." The nidaime said. Naruto relayed the message to the third.

"The village has gone backwards?" The third repeated with a frown.

Tobirama glanced at him, "Most of it is because your teammate keeps going behind your back and the council undermines you. You are old Sarutobi, perhaps you have forgotten that you are the Hokage of Konohagakure. Your word is the law. It is because you either do not see what they are doing or overlook what they are doing in order to keep the peace. But the council of yours have dropped the academy standard to nothing, the village is weakening in its strength. Do you remember when you were an academy student what was needed to pass? Now it is just written tests and three near useless jutsus. With the standards set as they are you are setting children up to die. Then there is the fact there is a civilian council at all. They have no business in shinobi matters. And your teammate, he still runs his little group despite you having disbanded it."

Naruto's eyes widened at the long message, it had cut out in multiple parts and so after grabbing a pen and some paper wrote it down taking three or four repeats before he read it to the third using the tone of voice that Tobirama had used.

The thirds eyes went wide as his sensei scolded him using Naruto as a median. Tobirama looked towards him, "It is unfortunate that you have to be here, but I thank you for the chance to set my student straight, I have been watching Konoha slowly decay and hopefully Sarutobi can fix it."

Naruto just smiled, "It's fine! Besides I want to be Hokage in the future!"

Tobirama nodded. "That is a good goal Naruto-kun, perhaps I will help you." It took Tobirama a few times repeating before Naruto heard what he said.

The young boy had stars in his eyes, "Really! So cool!"

The nidaime shimmer lip twitched up in a semi smile, "Indeed it is interesting that someone can see us spirts, I'm sure many others would want to teach you a few things as well."

Naruto nodded rapidly. His guardian cleared his throat and Naruto looked at him, "I hope you did not think that I would not be training you. Now that you can hear me most of the time, we can begin your training."

"Thank you!" Naruto shouted and tried to tackle his guardian shimmer in a hug only to pass right through him and face plant. "Oww" Naruto whined rubbing his nose as he sat up.

His guardian shimmer chuckled and did the hair ruffle. Tobirama looked decidedly unimpressed. Naruto shared a glance with his guardian who had become good at telling what the boy was thinking, he rolled his eyes, but stuck his tongue out at Tobirama with Naruto.

The Nidaime's eyes widened and he said something Naruto didn't hear. His guardian just responded with something Naruto once more didn't hear. Tobirama looked affronted and said something back and the two shimmers started bickering.

Sarutobi shook his head finally coming out of his shock. Unaware of the two bickering shimmers he asked, "Have I really been that negligent?"

"Negligent?" Naruto repeated the word slowly.

"It means to be neglectful," Seeing that Naruto didn't know what neglectful meant the third elaborated, "Neglectful means that I have been failing in doing what my duties require."

Naruto nodded in his understanding as he ignored the pieces of the bickering he could make out. "Nidaime-shimmer and Guardian-shimmer are bickering like an old married couple." Naruto whispered to the third.

The man spluttered and then chuckled in amusement. "Oh I almost forgot, I brought you a gift Naruto-kun."

"Oh?" Naruto asked excited ignoring that the two shimmers looked like they were about ready to fight.

Sarutobi handed him the small package he had been holding earlier. "These books are gifts, one is to help you with the academy, though I will be taking a careful look into the academy standards now that Tobirama-sensei mentions that they are so low."

Naruto opened the package and inside was a couple books. One was a book on the history of Konoha, another was a book on traps, the third was a book about sealing, and the fourth looked to be like a diary only it looked old and worn out. One last one was a small book on chakra.

Holding the diary he asked, "What is this?"

Sarutobi gave a gentle smile, "It is a journal from a seal master as they learned to create seals. He would have wanted you to have it."

The boy smiled, "Thanks jiji! I'll be sure to learn from these!"

Naruto ducked as a kunai went flying through where his head had been, "Oi! No fighting in my apartment please!" He shouted at the two shimmers who had started throwing weapons at each other.

"My apologies, this ignoramus does not seem to know how to be a respectful guest in another's house." His guardian-shimmer said smoothly. Tobirama glared at him and said something and the two quickly left, most likely to go fight.

"Ignoramus?" Naruto repeated, but the shimmers were already gone.

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow as he explained, "It means ignorant or stupid."

"Ah. The shimmers left to go fight I think."

The third slowly nodded, "This has been a lot more eventful than I thought it would be."

"No kidding, Guardian-shimmer always avoids going into the tower, I guess I now know why. I figured he was avoiding the nidaime…"

"Interesting I wonder just who your guardian is…" The third mused glancing once more at the picture.

"I don't know." Naruto sighed keeping Orochimaru a secret, a deal was a deal… he just hoped the snake sannin forgot about him and the favor he owed.

"Why don't we go get some ramen?" The third offered.

Naruto beamed and nodded, the two went off and ate ramen together at Ichiraku's.

 **A/n: I should mention that there is a crackish nature to this fic in the future.**


	5. Chapter 5

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

After the meeting with the third the academy had been delayed for a month while the hokage rebutted the whole system, Naruto didn't know everything that went down but things started changing around the village. The first warning sign was when civilians started to riot and complain. Anbu had jumped down and had said something, Naruto was too far away to hear what, but the civilians had looked shocked.

The shimmers seemed to be happy about it, and when he talked to his Guardian-shimmer the man had said that because of the talk between tobirama and Sarutobi that the village was returning to how it should be.

Naruto had been making slow progress on the book about chakra as his guardian helped him learn to read. He didn't understand most of it so far, just that chakra was made of two parts, a physical part and a spiritual part.

Finally the academy was reopened and Naruto joined his fellow kids in the classroom. A pair of civilians stood at the front of the classroom. "Hello children! How are you doing?" One of them asked as every seated themselves. A few goods responded.

"I'm glad to hear that, My name is Hantei and this is Shinsetsu," Hantei said with a smile as he gestured to the female next to him. He wore a basic tunic and had short cropped hair.

Shinsetsu gave a polite bow as she said, "I'm pleased to be the assistant for what looks like a wonderful group of students, I hope we can all get along." The woman had on a Kimono that looked pretty basic though it had a few flowers on the bottom. Her hair was placed in a bun with two decorative chopsticks stuck through them.

The class started out with the teachers asking everyone to introduce themselves, there names favorite colors, and what there dream was. They also wanted to know if you planned to be a shinobi or a civilian.

Eventually it came to be his turn, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! My favorite color is grey," mostly because it was the only color he could see, " And my dream is to become the Hokage!" he said with a smile, "I want to be a shinobi."

"Obviously" his guardian commented dryly. The class procedures on, the teachers explaining that this year the class mostly focused on being able to write and read, and they went over some of the more important works as well as the history of Konoha. They mentioned they would have a pe day once a month, but they had recess everyday for an hour. They also said that for an hour every week they would have art time where the kids could draw.

Later it was recess time and Naruto was sitting against a tree trying to read more of the chakra book he was given with the help of his guardian-shimmer when the air suddenly became tense. Naruto looked up and saw that a group of older kids had surrounded him, the kids were from one of the split academies, he couldn't tell if they were from the Ninja or Civilian academy though. Putting his book in his bag he gave a large smile, "Hello!" He greeted cheerfully. He knew this wasn't going to end well.

"Your name is Naruto Uzumaki yeah?" One of the kids asked.

He gave a nod in response.

"So your the monster then that our parents told us about." One of the other boys said.

"I'm not a monster." Naruto protested.

A girl with long hair said, "I've seen the way the villagers treat you, everyone thinks your a demon possessing the body of a human."

"I'm not!" he protested.

"Shut up monster!" One of the boys, who had spiky short hair shouted, "No one wants to hear your lies, you stupid orphan."

His guardian-shimmer was scowling at them, but there was nothing he could do to protect Naruto from the living.

"Why do you even live demon, you should just go kill yourself." One of the older girls said snidely.

Naruto flinched back. The kids were about to say something else, but luckily a teacher called for the recess to be over. The young blonde trudged his way back to the classroom. He sat next to the same boy from earlier a boy who wore a high collared jacket and wore glasses, even inside the building. He was pretty sure the boys name was Shino. Naruto reseated himself next to the boy who had been silent the entire time.

But that was fine, Naruto didn't want to chat with anyone now anyways. His guardian put his hand over Naruto's shoulder offering a silent comfort as the teachers continued with the first day of the class.

The day ended and Naruto made his way out, looking around he saw parents picking the kids up. His eyes caught onto the girl who had been cruel earlier and she was talking with another woman. Then he saw the girl point to him and say something else. He watched the woman laugh and pat the girl on her head.

Naruto sighed as he turned away and started walking back to his apartment. Mostly the civilians just ignored him, but today they seemed to be glaring at him more, and he heard whispers. They wondered why a demon like him was allowed in the academy. Why such a monster was allowed near their children, and the one that hurt the most, why was he still alive? The villagers didn't like him and wanted him dead. Naruto couldn't take it anymore and he ran trying to get away from everyone.

OoOoO- Guardian-shimmer -OoOoO

He watched over the boy and helped him to read, he could not help Naruto with his writing, but reading he could definitely help with. The academy start was delayed by a month as the third hokage cracked down and started to tend to the fire that the village was supposed to be instead of the dimming ember it had become.

The will of fire indeed… he wondered sometimes what Hashirama would have done had he decided to remain in the in between, he had not heard anything about Hashirama and figured that perhaps he had decided to move on.

He had seen the civilians try to riot and protest against the changes the hokage was making, but the Anbu had quickly shut them up. After all if the civilians did not want the protection living in konoha provided them, they could always leave. Konoha was a ninja village and civilians had no right to interfere in there rulings. Something that Sarutobi had forgotten about, but was now reminded about.

He had seen most of the other spirts seem more pleased with the going ons of the living world. He smiled and gave the boy another hair ruffle as Naruto sat next to him for more help with reading the chakra book. The boy smiled at him, he may not actually be able to feel the hair ruffle, but he still appreciated the gesture.

A month after the academy was supposed to open the hokage had finally finished reviewing the materials and the academy reopened. Naruto excitedly got dressed in some of his newer clothes. The boy wore a simple grey shirt and black paints. The boy said that since all he could see was grey, he might as well appreciate the one color he could see.

The boy entered into the academy and sat next to a boy who wore a light grey high collared coat and sunglasses. He recognized that style of dressing, the boy was from the Aburame clan. Users of bug, even back in the founding of the village they tended to be avoided because of the bugs the clan used.

The class proceed mostly with introductions and other basic things. He watched as most of the kids introduced themselves, though it was interesting to note that quite a few of the major clans had kids that were clan heirs, or were from the main branch of their families.

Naruto made his introduction and the class continued on discussing what the class would be talking about throughout the year, and then it was recess time and he continued with helping Naruto to read. It was surprisingly nice being like this. Deep inside him he felt an ounce of regret. Ignoring that he continued helping the boy until he noticed that some older brats were surrounding him, his eyes narrowed at them as he doubted they had kind intentions towards Naruto.

Naruto gave a large grin, painfully fake as he greeted the other kids.

He watched unable to do anything as the kids bullied Naruto.

Naruto flinched at one of the things the kids said. He snarled at the brats wishing he could hurt them, if they were to meet their demise anytime soon he was going to make there time in the in between painful before forcefully destroying there spirts so they could not find there eternal peace. He hated people like these brats. Another brat was starting to say something but the teacher called for the end of recess.

He watched as Naruto trudged his way to the classroom and sat once more next to the Aburame boy. He placed his hand over Naruto's shoulder trying to comfort the boy a bit, these idiots did not deserve someone like Naruto. The class finally ended and he saw Naruto watch with painfilled eyes as children were picked up by their parents.

Naruto did not deserve to be treated as he was, the boy reminded him of Hashirama. The third was a naive fool for releasing Naruto's status as a jinchuuriki. Naruto turned away and started slowly making his way back to his apartment. He sighed as the comments and whispers of the villager reached his ears, how could people be so cruel to a child? The village was created to be a safe haven for children. He was about to try and comfort Naruto when the boy took off running tears streaming from his eyes.

He watched and sighed as he heard the civilians snicker and laugh at Naruto's misery. He thought about following the boy, but he was no good at comforting children. Frowning he wondered how he could best help Naruto. Looking at the building he scowled, but figured that Tobirama would know better that he would. He never had to deal with children since his wife had left him and took their son with her. He had only been able to hold Kasai once.

Shaking his head he started walking to the tower. The spirit guards at the tower jumped out of his way when he glared at them, since Tobirama had learned he was here he stopped bothering with the henge.

He went to the hokage's office and the spirit Anbu fled the room. He scoffed at that, he had not even come to fight Tobirama. The man narrowed his eyes at him. The air became tense. He noticed in slight amusement that even the third seemed to notice something was up as his pencil stopped and he looked around for a moment.

"Why are you here?" Tobirama asked getting straight to the point.

He sighed, "I do not know how I can help Naruto, the civilians are as you know not accepting of him. Though you are not good at dealing with children either, you are better than I am." He said crossing his arms.

"Where is Naruto now?" Tobirama asked.

"I do not know, he ran off after overhearing some villagers say that they wished he was dead."

"The first thing is to find him, then the next thing to do is to comfort him."

He gave Tobirama a blank stare. The man shrugged in response. Great neither of them knew how to comfort someone. This would be so much easier if Hashirama was here. "The best thing we could probably do is offer something to take his mind off of what the villagers suggested."

He narrowed his eyes a bit at that, "We?" He questioned.

"I will not having you corrupt the boy any further, the only reason I haven't had my ninja attack you is because you have yet to do anything to harm either of the worlds."

"I have not corrupted the boy at all, unless you say that helping the boy learn how to read is corrupting him." He muttered. Even after they were dead Tobirama did not trust him, go figure.

"We are wasting time, let's go find the boy."

"Fine" He agreed and the two left to search for the blonde haired boy who could see them. Hours later of not being able to find the boy, Tobirama enlisted the help of the other shimmers, and waited in the hokage's office, while he went to search the outskirts of the village.

 **A/N Made the POV better.  
**


	6. Chapter 6

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

The young boy ran, he ran away from everything. He made his way along an out of the way path, not particularly carrying where he was going so long as he was away from everything. Eventually he tripped and fell. Sniffling he looked around, seeing no one around he relaxed a little bit. He hated the fact that he was unwanted by the village, that he was nothing but a monster and a demon to them.

Sitting up the boy looked around again, he didn't know where he was at… blinking he saw something that seemed to be flickering in and out of his vision, curious and looking for something to distract himself with. The young boy slowly walked over to the flickering area, soon he saw that it was a barrier like thing surrounding a field, frowning he entered it. Walking deeper into the area he found a small clearing which had a bench and a small array of flowers that were different shades of grey, which meant they varied in different colors.

Blinking he saw that someone was sitting on the bench staring at the flowers, Naruto focused on the man and noticed that he had that slight see through quality that meant he was a shimmer. The man glanced up at him briefly and Naruto recognized the man, he was Hashirama. The man returned to staring at his flowers. Naruto went to sit next to the man. From the stories he had heard about Hashirama the man was a cheerful person who believed the best in everyone, his guardian-shimmer commented that Naruto reminded him of Hashirama.

But the shimmer didn't seem cheerful. He kinda looked sad, like Naruto was feeling. He sat next to the first Hokage for a while, mentally giving the nickname Sad-shimmer to the man. Perhaps the man had a mask around people and acted cheerful, Naruto did that a lot of the time. After a couple hours he left thoughtful of the first Hokage. Walking along the path he memorized his way back to someplace he recognized so he could find the field again.

Coming into Konoha proper he blinked in shock as one of the shimmers pointed at him and shouted something, what it was he couldn't hear, but soon another shimmer this one wearing a Anbu mask came over to him, "Naruto-sama, Hokage-sama has been looking for you." the Anbu-shimmer said. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that but followed the Anbu-shimmer to the hokage tower. The secretary automatically allowed him into the hokage's office since jiji wasn't in a meeting.

"Hello Naruto-kun" Sarutobi greeted.

Naruto waved at him before focusing on Tobirama, "You wished to see me?" He asked the shimmer.

Sarutobi blinked and then he raised an eyebrow.

Tobirama nodded, "Yes, your _guardian_ asked for me to help with comforting you since he is… unskilled at comforting people. And then when neither he nor I could find you..."

Naruto frowned at that, "I'm fine, its nothing im not used to." He replied.

"A child should not have to be used to something like that." Tobirama said with a frown.

Naruto shrugged in response.

"What's going on Naruto-kun?" The third asked confused.

"I was upset earlier and ran off, Guardian-shimmer apparently decided to ask Nidaime-shimmer here for help, but after they couldn't find me I guess he ordered the other shimmers to keep and eye out for me, Anbu-shimmer informed me that Tobirama wished to see me and here I am." Naruto explained with a shrug.

"There was another reason I wanted to see you actually." Tobirama said.

"Oh?" Naruto asked curious.

The second hokage nodded, "I know that… your guardian," Tobirama frowned a bit at that before he continued, "Is helping you with your school work, but I was wondering how you would like an early start to your training as a shinobi?"

Naruto's eyes were wide, "Really?"

Tobirama nodded, "I mentioned last month that I would be willing to help, and for the last month I was considering what I could help you with."

The young boy bounced on his feet, "When do we begin Tobirama-sensei?"

The thirds eyes widened slightly.

The second crossed his arms. "We begin this weekend."

"Alright!" Naruto cheered.

Tobirama frowned a bit, but didn't say anything.

"So Tobirama-sensei is going to be training you?" his jiji asked an amused look in his eyes.

Naruto nodded. "Yep!"

"Does sensei have anything else to tell me while your here Naruto-kun?"

The boy looked over towards the man who seemed thoughtful, after a moment he spoke up, "Some of the Uchiha spirts mentioned seeing a strange person enter the clan grounds, they say that he is egging on the coup when they follow him."

Naruto repeated what Tobirama mentioned, the thirds eyes went wide. "Can you tell me more about this person?"

"Give me a moment to summon the one who followed the man." Tobirama told Sarutobi through Naruto.

A few minutes later a shimmer came into the office, the shimmer was a Uchiha if the clan symbol on his back was of any indication.

The man said something Naruto didn't hear. By this point he was able hear almost everything of what his Guardian said, and about 75% of what every other shimmer said.

"Yes, can you tell us about the strange man who entered the Uchiha grounds?"

The shimmer looked at Naruto, "Oh! Naruto-sama is here! It is an honour to meet you."

Naruto gave the man a weird look and noted to ask about being called sama later… actually he had noticed that this past month he had been getting looks of respect from some of the population, but he had dismissed it thinking they were looking at someone else.

"The man generally appears out of nowhere with just a swirl, completely different from the shunshin. He has long black hair a bit lower than his shoulders, and then he henges himself into a generic Uchiha appearance. I followed him and he talks with the other clan members exacerbating the problem of the clan believing that there being ostracized… but there's one other thing some of us found out," The shimmer paused briefly glancing at him. "One of the others remembered seeing him before, the night the kyuubi attacked. The masked man was the one who controlled the Kyuubi, he also fought the fourth hokage and the fourth had thought the man was Madara. As we know this is impossible since the man is dead. The man disappears as strangely as he appears, with a swirl vortex that seems to pull him in."

Naruto repeated the information to the Hokage. The hokage leaned back looking thoughtful. "This ability of yours is very powerful, these spirits are the ultimate spies…" He murmured.

The Uchiha-shimmer paused before saying, "Fugaku is starting to become suspicious of Itachi."

Naruto related that bit to the third who nodded. "Hmm, perhaps… how do you think your clan would react if one of the uchiha were assigned to be Naruto's tutor?" The third mused.

The Uchiha-shimmer frowned thoughtfully, "So long as you discuss it with Fugaku he might actually see it as a sign of trust, but with the masked man spreading those rumors there will be no way to stop the coup without a more drastic measure."

Naruto relayed what the shimmer said. "I will have to give more though to this. If you see the masked man around please find out what you can of him, I will alert my shinobi to be on the lookout as well as the Fugaku-dono." The third said thoughtfully. "Thank you Naruto, I will summon you if I have need of you, and I'm sure Sensei can also summon you if he has something that he needs to say to me. And I'm sure you know not to repeat anything sensitive to anybody else, do not repeat any sensitive information outside this room." The hokage said dismissing Naruto, and warning him.

Tobirama nodded his agreement to what the third said, Naruto gave a respectful bow and left.

OoOoO- Sarutobi -OoOoO

He looked up from his paperwork as his door opened without someone first knocking, he smiled as he saw Naruto come in though the boy seemed distracted as he closed the door behind him, he activated the privacy seals so no one outside the office could hear the conversation. The Anbu would still hear the conversation, but he trusted them.

"Hello Naruto-kun" he greeted the boy.

The boy waved at him before focusing on a patch of empty air "You wished to see me?" The boy seemingly asked the thin air.

He blinked realizing his suspicion was right, he raised an eyebrow as Naruto listened to presumably Tobirama say something.

The boy frowned before responding, "I'm fine, its nothing im not used to."

A pause before Naruto shrugged.

"What's going on Naruto-kun?" He asked wishing he knew what his sensei was saying.

"I was upset earlier and ran off, Guardian-shimmer apparently decided to ask Nidaime-shimmer here for help, but after they couldn't find me I guess he ordered the other shimmers to keep and eye out for me, Anbu-shimmer informed me that Tobirama wished to see me and here I am." Naruto explained with a shrug.

Sarutobi nodded and was about to ask why Naruto was upset when Naruto said, "Oh?" in a curious voice once more focusing on a patch of air.

Naruto's eyes went wide from whatever he heard as he questioned in a hopeful voice, "Really?"

Sarutobi watched amused as Naruto began bouncing in place obviously excited about something, "When do we begin Tobirama-sensei?" The boy asked and his eyes widened a bit, did that mean Tobirama would be helping Naruto to train. It was just then that Sarutobi started to realize just how powerful this ability truly was.

"Alright!" Naruto cheered apparently pleased with what he heard.

"So Tobirama-sensei is going to be training you?" he asked Naruto amused at the boys antics, and knowing his sensei he knew that they would test each others patience quite a bit as his sensei had 'no sense of fun' as Koharu once said.

Naruto nodded. "Yep!"

"Does sensei have anything else to tell me while your here Naruto-kun?" He asked curious.

He watched as the boy turned to the blank space of air. Then he changed his posture a bit to, from what the third assumed, copy Tobirama's stance as he tried his best to copy the mans tone of voice and said, "Some of the Uchiha spirts mentioned seeing a strange person enter the clan grounds, they say that he is egging on the coup when they follow him."

His eyes once more widened, if someone was encouraging the coup that wasn't good, "Can you tell me more about this person?" he request looking over to the same patch of air Naruto had been looking at.

"Give me a moment to summon the one who followed the man." Tobirama told him through Naruto.

A few minutes pass and then he saw Naruto turn hi attention to the door another moment passed before Naruto's face scrunched up as he looked at the air as if it had said something weird. He idly wondered what that was about.

After a few minutes of Naruto staring intensely at the air the boy turn to face him and said, "The man generally appears out of nowhere with just a swirl, completely different from the shunshin. He has long black hair a bit lower than his shoulders, and then he henges himself into a generic Uchiha appearance. I followed him and he talks with the other clan members exacerbating the problem of the clan believing that there being ostracized… but there's one other thing some of us found out. One of the others remembered seeing him before, the night the kyuubi attacked. The masked man was the one who controlled the Kyuubi, he also fought the fourth hokage and the fourth had thought the man was Madara. As we know this is impossible since the man is dead. The man disappears as strangely as he appears, with a swirl vortex that seems to pull him in."

He leaned back after hearing that information, it was quite a bit of information, none of which he knew before. That the masked man who set the Kyuubi on them had actually fought against Minato… and that he appears and disappears in such a strange fashion, he was pretty sure that in fact it wasn't someone in the village, and it was most likely a rogue Uchiha, though who specifically he didn't know as there were no rouge Uchiha at the moment. "This ability of yours is very powerful, these spirits are the ultimate spies…" He murmured out loud.

"Fugaku is starting to become suspicious of Itachi." Naruto said obviously repeating one of the spirts.

"Hmm, perhaps… how do you think your clan would react if one of the uchiha were assigned to be Naruto's tutor?" He questioned, having figured that the spirit the Nidaime had summoned would be a Uchiha since that was the most obvious way the spirit would be able to provide more information.

"So long as you discuss it with Fugaku he might actually see it as a sign of trust, but with the masked man spreading those rumors there will be no way to stop the coup without a more drastic measure." Naruto relayed.

"I will have to give more though to this," he admitted before requesting, "If you see the masked man around please find out what you can of him, I will alert my shinobi to be on the lookout as well as the Fugaku-dono. Thank you Naruto, I will summon you if I have need of you, and I'm sure Sensei can also summon you if he has something that he needs to say to me. And I'm sure you know not to repeat anything sensitive to anybody else, do not repeat any sensitive information outside this room." He said warning Naruto to keep the stuff secret. The boy actually bowed respectfully as he left, having apparently realized that he was in fact giving a command as hokage and not as the boys pseudo grandfather.

When Naruto left a shadow from the corner of the room stepped forward his form shimmering to reveal the Anbu commander in his white cloak, "Hokage-sama… what was that?" He asked.

"That was Naruto Uzumaki's special bloodline, and SS-rank secret not to leave this room." He said sharply leaving no room for dispute. "As it is… his bloodline allows him to see spirits which he seems to have taken to calling them shimmers."

The hokage watched amused as he saw the Anbu commander become shock despite trying to hide it. After a minute the hokage added, "Apparently the nidaime hokage, my sensei, still remains the hokage of what is called the inbetween. As you can see with Naruto acting as the median I have been able to gather important information."

"Yes," The Anbu commander said, "Are you sure that Naruto can keep the information to himself?"

Sarutobi thought about the blonde haired boy. "Yes, he himself only told me of his ability a little over a month ago, despite claiming that it had developed a bit over half a year before that point in time. I think he only told me because from what I gathered my sensei had been hearing rumors about Naruto and followed me, when he entered he encountered Naruto's 'guardian' and the two apparently don't get along."

The commander took in the information before after a moment of contemplation, "This kids kekkei genkai, have you thought about what to do with Naruto?"

"It is odd, but for now I will let him continue to be a normal academy student."

"May I suggest that perhaps he be allowed to occasionally train with the Anbu?" Seeing the hokage frown he clarified, "Mostly on the information parts, if he can learn how to securely transmit messages to you, or me if need be, than it could help with the security of the village, such as if the information is time sensitive, or important but you are in a meeting. Being trained in how to deliver the information will be good for him."

The Hokage thought over the suggestion the commander made and agreed, it would help. "Very well, I will tell Naruto about this tomorrow and his training can begin, his training is off the record, no one is to know about this, only you, sloth, hummingbird, and fox are to know that Naruto is receiving training." The three other Anbu stepped out of there spots. It might seem like overkill, but as hokage the Anbu took his protection very seriously, despite the fact he could protect himself.

Grabbing a few papers from a drawer on his desk he signed a few papers, "Naruto Uzumaki has S-rank clearance to security information, if you even think that the spirits can provide information to help the village that ask Naruto. If this ability of his can secure konoha than we will use it. After all the spirts often see things we don't. The secret of his parents and his jinchuriki status though is to be made a ss-rank secret." He declared.

"By your command Hokage-sama!" The Anbu said as one. Sloth, Hummingbird, and Fox went back to there spots, while the commander took the papers and left.

 **A/N So weird note, I had a dream last night that I got flame reviews for this story, like they expect it to be perfect, but I was just like, but this is a NaNoWriMo work... so yeah, weird kinda nightmarish dream. That being said I know there are mistakes in this, I know that. Maybe oneday I will rewrite it to improve upon it, and hopefully make the Other Pov's not as annoying to read somehow... but for now this is what I have and all I can hope is that you guys enjoy it. Have a good day yall!**


	7. Chapter 7

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

He left the office and returned to his apartment to see that his Guardian-shimmer was there waiting for him. The man nodded at him, his posture relaxing slightly. "Say, do you know why the other shimmers are calling me sama?" Naruto asked.

"It is because of your status of being a living person who can communicate with us, the benefits of which this ability of yours is… startling with just what you can do." His guardian answered.

"It's weird." Naruto said wrinkling his nose. Pausing he thought back to the shimmer he had found, he wondered if it was really Hashirama. The shimmer looked alot like the man, but what if he wasn't and just some shimmer that looked similar since he couldn't see colors. "I found something earlier! Follow me." Naruto said grinning at his guardian.

The man shot him a questioning look, but Naruto ignored it as he made his way to where the path was, walking about halfway up he found the flickering field again. "See!" he pointed to the flickering area.

His guardian frowned at him, "See what?"

"The flickering area, it kinda looks like its not there and then it is there." Naruto said watching it.

"Interesting, I do not see anything, perhaps another spirit put up a barrier to be alone." His guardian said.

"Well there was the Sad-shimmer I found."

"I will be unable to enter the area." The guardian said.

"I'm gonna go talk to the sad shimmer." Naruto told him.

The shimmer looked at him carefully before nodding, "I will wait for you here."

Naruto entered into the flickering area again and towards the clearing, still sitting there was the sad-shimmer, he looked as if he hadn't moved at all. "Hello!" Naruto greeted.

The shimmer didn't even look up. Naruto pouted, "Oi! Sad-shimmer!" He called.

That got the possible Hashirama attention. The man looked at him and gave a slow blink. Slowly he pointed to himself.

"Yeah you."

"You… can see me?" The man slowly asked furrowing his eyebrows.

"I can see all kinds of shimmers, well spirits, but I call y'all shimmers. You look sad hence your name, my guardian shimmer protected me hence his name became guardian instead of stalker like it used to be, and I sometimes call Tobirama Nidaime-shimmer… hmm maybe I could also call him Sensei-shimmer." Naruto said rambling a bit.

The sad-shimmer just looked at him before commenting, "You were sad earlier."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. Stupid civilians."

"What happened?"

The boy looked at the shimmer, "The civilians don't like me for some reason, I'm sure guardian-shimmer and Nidaime-shimmer know why, but they haven't told me, then again I haven't asked… I will have to remember to ask them. Anyways the civilians were being extra mean today for whatever reason, and some older kids were being meanies."

The man seemed to get even sadder for some reason as he crouched down and drew on the ground a cloud hanging around his head. Naruto frowned, "Say what's your name?" He asked. The sad-shimmer looked up a bit of surprise on his face, asking a silent question. "You look like Hashirama, but I could be mistaken cause I'm colorblind." Naruto answered the unspoken question.

The man gave him a small smile, "I am Hashirama."

Naruto nodded, "So why are you sad?"

Hashirama shook his head, "It's getting late little one, you should return home, I'm sure your parents will be getting worried." He said with an obviously fake smile.

"I'm an Orphan. My only guardian is my guardian-shimmer…" Naruto turned to leave before pausing, "I'll come visit you again soon!"

Naruto exited the clearing and saw his guardian waiting for him. The two silently walked back to Naruto's apartment. Naruto went to his drawing and started drawing the clearing and Hashirama, though he didn't bother trying to find the correct colors. He hung his drawing up on the wall, his guardian looked at the newest picture, "Is that supposed to be Hashirama?"

He gave a nod, "Yeah, sad-shimmer."

His guardian frowned at that, "Sad?"

"Mhmm he seems really sad for some reason…" Naruto replied as he got ready for bed. He ate his dinner, changed his clothes and laid down, "Goodnight Guardian."

OoOoO- Tobirama -OoOoO

He watched the conversation between his student and the Anbu commander with interest. To train Naruto in information delivery would be useful to Konoha. Turning he smirked, Konoha now had a heavy advantage against the other nations. Summoning the squad leaders he assigned them a new assignment, to create a functional spy network, for now all information would come to him and he could relay it to Naruto as needed, and this way he could have less off duty spirits. Since there was so many who decided to stay behind they always had an overabundance of spirits. Now though some of the other spirits could help the village.

While they may not be getting paid like there living counterparts, there job was no less important. They cleaned up the filth that formed, the filth were basically evil spirits. A bit of time passed and he paused when another spirit entered. "What do you want now?" He asked crossing his arms. He had been surprised when he found that this man was still around, and was in fact guardian to Naruto. He did not trust the Uchiha at all, but… it had been partially his fault for what happened.

"What happened to Hashirama?" The Uchiha asked.

Tobirama barly hid a wince, "I assume Naruto found that area where he hid himself away."

The Uchiha nodded.

"Technically here in the inbetween I am the Sandime, and Hashirama the Nidaime. The Shodai for the in between world was your brother."

The Uchiha's eyes widened, "Izuna?" he breathed out hopefully.

"Your brother has already moved on to the other side. But he only moved on after he had a chat with both me and Hashirama. Your brother, has a very sharp tongue."

The Uchiha snorted and muttered, "That is an understatement."

"Yes well, after Izuna spoke with him… he became upset and as soon as I joined he said I was once more Hokage and he left barricading himself away in that clearing. It was soon after when Izuna came and had a chat with me, if the chat he had with me was close to what he had with Hashirama…" Tobirama shook his head, "After he chatted with me he said his job was done and he allowed himself to move on."

The Uchiha was silent. Tobirama glanced at him and saw that there was a bit of pain in his eyes, for what he didn't know… "I think that right now Naruto is the only one who can help him, he has blocked himself from us, and the other living can't see him…"

"He called Hashirama Sad-shimmer" The Uchiha said.

Tobirama nodded, "A lot of the older spirits said that after Izuna had his talk with Hashirama that he stopped smiling and only did his job out of a sense of duty…"

The Uchiha frowned, "I wonder what Izuna said to Hashirama…"

"It was most likely saying how it was Hashirama's fault for not paying attention to how the villagers treated you that drove you away." Tobirama admitted, "And he also placed a lot of blame on me, for not trying to work with you better, that because of how openly suspicious of you I was, and the lack of Hashirama doing anything, because he didn't notice, that it was those reasons that the citizens didn't trust you and drove you to the actions you did."

The Uchiha looked at him his eyes wide. It took a moment but then the man glared, "Damnit Izuna." He hissed.

Tobirama raised an eyebrow.

"My brother always did hate you senju. It was neither you nor Hashirama's fault for what happened. I was used to being an outcast, whether in my clan for my eyes, or in the village for my power and the rumours. I could deal with your suspicions, hell I even supported the fact that Hashirama was made the Hokage. What I could not accept was the fact that the clans were being destroyed. That the peace we had worked so hard for was falling down around us and there was nothing we could do. I wanted peace!"

Tobirama stared at the Uchiha who had activated his sharingan when he mentioned his eyes, the three tomoe were spinning wildly in the man's eyes. The Uchiha collapsed onto one of the chairs in the office. Looking at the man he wondered what happened, something had gone on behind the scenes that neither he nor Hashirama knew about. "What happened?"

The man seemed reluctant, but after a moment he sighed, "Back before I left the village I was reading the stone tablet that had been passed among the Uchiha clan for generations, the sharingan could only decipher a bit of it, the mangekyou a bit more, but it was the eternal mangekyou that told me about the Infinite Tsukuyomi. A genjutsu that would cover the world and bring everyone peace, and that it would be the salvation of the Uchiha clan. I spent a bit planning how to bring it to fruition, I had left the village in order to find out more about the Infinite Tsukuyomi, I found more information scattered about, and I encountered the Kyuubi. Taking control I returned to complete the next step, to gain the Rinnegan."

Tobirama's eyes narrowed as the Uchiha continued his tale, the man looked worn down. The Uchiha looked out the window, "As you know me and Hashirama fought in the valley of the end where I supposedly died. But I had gotten what I had come back for, which was Hashirama's cells. I grafted it onto my own body and waited for the rinnegan to form. But by the time the rinnegan formed I was getting to be to old and I could only prolong my life after summoning the Demonic statue. I waited and eventually things happened where I found a boy to mold to my whim, Obito Uchiha…" The Uchiha's voice was full of regret. The man let out a tired sigh, "After I had broken the boy to my will," and here the Uchiha flinched, Tobirama could clearly see that the man was ashamed of his actions, "I gave him my name to use and black zetsu who I believed to be the manifestation of my will from the demonic statue."

The Uchiha stood up and started pacing, "All throughout this time I continued feeling like I had betrayed my brother, like he was judging me… what I did not know was that the feeling was not natural, in fact it was Zetsu manipulating me, it was a subtle poison he used. When I died the first time I had used a time delayed Izanagi to bring myself back to life, as a spirit at that time I watched Zetsu merge into my body, of course when I became alive again I could not remember my time as a spirit. When I revived my head felt more clouded than before though I did not realize it until after I had died the second time. My head felt more clear and I watched as Obito left to continue what he believed I wanted. I watched as Zetsu grinned and spoke outloud to his 'mother' saying that soon he would be able to bring her back. I was manipulated. I know that does not excuse my actions, and if Obito follows the plan and revives me I will once more forgot this information. So I will train Naruto to fight off Zetsu and… me if needed so that Hashirama's peace can be upholded, it may not be perfect… but it is better than the warring state era."

Tobirama thought over what the Uchiha had told him, he wasn't apologizing for his actions, and he did not expect forgiveness, in fact saying that he will most likely cause trouble in the future because of this Zetsu person. But he was trying to fix it as best he could by training Naruto.

"How long do you think we have before this Zetsu makes his move?"

The uchiha shrugged, "I do not know. Before that blasted Edo Tensei of yours was used on me I was watching Obito manipulate the Mizukage."

Tobirama glanced up sharply at him, "What do you mean my Edo Tensei was used on you?"

"Orochimaru of the sannin summoned me using it, Naruto was laying on a table and was unconscious the man tried to remove my eyes, luckily though they turned to dust, but he seemed more amused than anything as he took out one of Naruto's eyes, which were badly damaged like they had been stabbed, he placed Naruto's eye in my edo tensei eye socket after removing my eye once again, and then my eye reformed using the material from Naruto's eye. He than removed that merged eye, and placed it in Naruto. He did the same with the boy's other eye."

Tobirama's eyes were wide in shock. "Naruto's monochromatic vision is not his normal eyesight, he was able to see color before. I have a suspicion that his ability to see us is somehow from what Orochimaru did." The Uchiha stated with a scowl. "I only decided originally to watch over Naruto, because it was more amusing to watch him than to continue trying to follow my 'apprentice' around."

"That is a lot of information you have provided." Tobirama stated narrowing his eyes a bit.

"I have made many mistakes Tobirama, excuse me for try to do what I can to make up for it." The Uchiha bit out.

"I will take this information into consideration. What does Naruto know of it?"

"None, I still have yet to tell him my name… though I think he does know and just keeps calling me guardian because he wants to." The Uchiha admitted.

Tobirama nodded it made sense that Naruto would know, if he also knew the stigma attached to his guardian, than that could be why he refused to admit he knew the Uchiha's name. "The third has decided that Naruto is to receive a bit of Anbu training, mostly around the aspects of information. What do you know about the Uchiha's plot of throwing a coup?"

The Uchiha's eyes widened a bit, "The clan is planning a coup?"

Tobirama nodded.

"I do not know anything about it."

"A rouge Uchiha wearing an orange mask with one eye hole is found to be appearing, henging into a random Uchiha and spreading rumours to egg on the coup."

"Obito," The Uchiha confirmed Tobirama's forming suspicion. "I did not tell him to do this… if he is not doing it of his own violation it could be that Obito is being furthered manipulated by Zetsu." The Uchiha stated. "If you have further need of me I will be watching over Naruto." The Uchiha said after a few minutes passed with each thinking to themselves about the situation.

 **A/n so I posted the wrong chapter, the one I posted was chapter 9... whoops. so here is the real chapter 8**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/n: This is actually chapter Nine, but I posted it as chapter 8 yesterday, so if this chapter seems familiar it is because I messed up, the real chapter 8 has been updated.**

OoOoO- Naruto - OoOoO

It was now his second day for the academy Naruto after he got ready and ate went to the academy looking for a seat, a few people had changed seats, but the spot next to the boy Shino was still open going over he sat next to the boy who didn't protest so he figured it was okay. His guardian stood behind him as usual his mostly silent presence a comfort as Naruto saw some of the kids point at him and whisper amongst themselves.

The boy next to him shifted and Naruto looked at him, "The kids here do not like you. Why?" He questioned bluntly.

Naruto shrugged, "I dunno, I guess there parents told them to avoid me."

"Why?" The boy questioned.

"I dunno, they've always hated me." he replied.

"It is illogical to hate someone who has done nothing." The boy stated.

Naruto blinked and frowned, "Does that mean you don't hate me?" he cautiously asked.

"So long as you do nothing wrong than I will not hate you."

He beamed at the kinda weird boy. "Can we be friends then?" He asked hopefully.

"What do you think of bugs?" Shino asked in return.

Naruto shrugged, "I don't mind them."

"Then we can be friends."

He was beaming the entire class period. When recess came he and Shino looked for bugs around the playground. It was the start of a wonderful friendship. At the end of the day he was about to return to his apartment when an Anbu-shimmer appeared. "The Hokage's would like to talk to you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that before changing course to head to the hokage tower. "Do you know what they want to see me for Guardian?" He asked looking up at his guardian.

The man smirked down at him, "I have an idea yes."

Naruto entered and the secretary stopped him, "Please wait a moment Naruto-kun, the Hokage is finishing up a meeting."

The young boy sat down and waited, the Anbu-shimmer went into the office. He didn't come back out. Twenty slow minutes later the door opened and a man came out with a frown on his face. He had short hair that was a darker shade of grey and work a simple Kimono that had diamond patterns around the bottom of it. The man glanced at him and Naruto smiled and waved. The man gave a nod to him, before turning and leaving.

"You can come in now Naruto-kun" Jiji's voice came through the door.

Naruto went into the room shutting the door behind him, "You guys wished to see me?" He asked looking at both the third and the second.

"I will let Tobirama go first." His jiji said with a bit of a frown.

Tobirama looked towards Naruto, "The spirits are setting up a spy network for you to use, once its fully setup the information will come either directly to me in which I can tell you so that you can inform the hokage of relevant information."

Naruto gave a nod before turning to the third. "They are setting up a spy network to be able to gather information for you."

"Good, now because of how important your information can be it is likely you might have to contact me, or if you are able to contact me then you are to contact the Anbu Commander."

Naruto frowned, "Anbu commander?"

From right behind him a voice said, "That would be me." Naruto jumped and spun around gathering chuckles from the living and the dead.

He pouted, "That was mean."

The Anbu commander continued staring at him, or at least Naruto thought he was since he couldn't see his face though the mask. "After being informed of your ability I have been tasked with training you. You will be given some training as an Anbu, only focusing on the information parts and communication. No one outside of this room is to know of your ability. None of the living that is, without permission from either Hokage-sama or me." As he said this 3 other Anbu came out from hiding, revealing a sloth, a hummingbird, and a fox masked Anbu.

"These three will help with your training. And they will from now on be guarding you at all times, only one at time though and they will rotate."

Naruto slowly nodded. "Because of your ability your security clearance has been raised, and that is because I trust you to not abuse this power Naruto." The hokage said looking at the boy seriously.

"I understand Hokage-sama" Naruto said respectfully, understanding now was not the time to call him jiji.

"Good. When you are being trained you are no longer Naruto, you have no name only the mask you wear." The commander said pulling out a blank mask that was just an average grey all across instead of white with grey marks like the others. "You are the one who is between worlds, so this mask is between the light of the day and the shadows of the night, welcome Nomani."

He took the mask before asking, "What color is it?"

The Hokage chuckled, "It is grey."

Naruto nodded and put it on. Blinking he was surprised that the mask was see through from his end. The commander looked at him and nodded, "From now on you will address me simply as Commander."

"Yes Commander." Naruto said.

"Your training will begin in an hour, I will find you. I recommend getting food."

Naruto nodded and the commander disappeared. "Naruto-kun, remember that know one is to know about your abilities or your training except for those in this room." The hokage said kindly.

The boy took the mask of before putting it in his backpack. "I understand… if people knew of my ability they would be trying to kidnap me or assassinate me right? Guardian told me this back when I first started hearing him." Naruto said looking at his guardian with a smile, the man truly was looking out for him. His guardian gave him a hair ruffle. He pretended he felt it.

"There is more information I need to convey to Sarutobi." Tobirama stated.

Naruto nodded, "Jiji, Sensei-shimmer has something to tell you."

The hokage rubbed his head, "Why do I feel like this is going to give me a headache."

Tobirama glared at him not that the third saw it. "It has been learned who the identity of the rouge Uchiha is. His name is Obito Uchiha and he was believed to be dead, instead he was rescued, he now believes himself to be acting in the will of Madara Uchiha, but is in fact operating under the will of someone called Zetsu."

Naruto repeated the info, The hokage frowned, "Obito Uchiha, if my memory is correct he was one of the members under Team Minato, along with Kakashi Hatake and Rin Nohara, Kakashi is believed to be the only living member. Thank you for the information, you should go get some food though before the commander gets you."

He gave a nod and left. Going to Ichiraku he ate a bowl of ramen. With still a good 45 minutes left he decided to go chat with Hashirama again. Heading to the field he looked at his guardian who seemed to be thinking about something. He wondered if the Anbu were following him even now, that someone could be following him without him knowing made him worried. Finding the flickering field again he entered and his Guardian waited outside.

"Hello!" He greeted Hashirama.

"You came here again." the man sorta questioned but it sounded like a statement.

"Of course. You still haven't told me why your sad."

"It's not really something a kid should hear." Hashirama tried to deflect.

Naruto frowned, "When was the last time you interacted with someone else before me?" The first hokage didn't respond. "You blocked yourself away from the people who want to help you, and the living besides for me can't see you sad-shimmer. So I'm gonna help you." He declared with a smile.

"I don't deserve to be helped." The first said looking away.

"Don't be stupid. Everyone deserves to be helped, even a monster like me likes to be helped." Naruto said.

The first hokage looked up startled, "Wha-?"

Naruto just shrugged, "The civilians don't like me, they call me a monster and a demon. I don't know why."

"Another thing I failed at…" the hokage muttered quietly, though Naruto still heard it with his sharp hearing.

"What are ya talking about? How could you have failed at that? You weren't around when I was born."

"Konoha is supposed to be a place where children can be cherished and protected, trained in safety so that they do not have to fight." The first said despondently.

"Well we are being trained at the academy, and all the other children are treated normally, I'm just the odd one out. Kinda like my guardian was, he mentioned that back when he was alive the village didn't much care for him either, he said they thought he was a warmonger." Naruto stated carefully watching Hashirama's reaction.

The man looked at him, eyes wide, "W-who is your guardian?"

"I haven't learned my Guardian's name, I just call him guardian." Naruto answered with a foxy grin.

Hashirama frowned and shook his head, "Where is this guardian of yours anyways?"

"He's waiting outside this barrier you put up since he can't see this place."

"How did you find this place anyways?" the first asked.

"Well I was running to get away from everything when I fell down, when I looked up I saw a sort of flickering as if something was trying to not be seen, but I could see it." Naruto said with a shrug.

Naruto finally sat next to the Hokage. He waited for the man to say something or ask another question, but he didn't. So Naruto just sat next to him quietly. A little bit later Hashirama looked up right as the commander appeared in front of them as if out of nowhere. "You found a pretty secluded spot." The commander commented looking around.

Naruto nodded. "Put on your mask and this outfit, I will take you to begin your training." The commander ordered handing him an outfit that Naruto recognized as the standardized outfit all Anbu wore.

The first hokage frowned as Naruto quickly changed his clothes before he pulled out his mask and put it on. "You are an Anbu?" Hashirama asked after Naruto was done. His tone seemed upset. Naruto noticed that the commander to the side grabbed his backpack, which he had shoved his other clothes into, into a scroll.

"Not really, but because of my ability I need to learn how to provide information to the third."

"What spirit are you talking with Nomani?" The commander asked sharply.

"I am speaking with Hashi-chan." Naruto said with a foxy grin sticking his tongue out at the startled man.

"Hashi-chan?" Said man repeated.

"Uh Huh, cause my guardian mentioned he was always annoyed when you called him chan. So nah," Naruto told him, "See ya later sad-shimmer!" He said as he reached the commander. The commander picked him up and they disappeared in rush.

"What was that?" Naruto asked when they stopped.

"A shunshin." The commander replied.

"Cool."

They were outside a building that looked rather plain. The commander entered the building and Naruto followed. He followed him past several masked Anbu who, while giving no outward appearance to there shock, were staring at him. Naruto could feel it. They entered a blank room, "Today I will begin your training on learning the Anbu hand signs, this is useful for conveying messages to any Anbu you need to, for now we will just focus on learning the words, but as you get a basic grasp on it we will work on your speed at forming the signs, as well as training your eyes to read the signs at high speed. Also when you are around other Anbu you need to hide your identity, the mask you have gives your hair a more generic hair color of brown, and it can mask your voice, but people can still recognize from your speech patterns. Therefore when you wear the mask you need to be able to change your speech patterns. Your body language as well, the way you hold yourself can give you a way to those skilled enough."

Naruto slowly nodded thinking back both Tobirama and his guardian. He shifted his positioning a bit to imitate how Tobirama stood. Thinking over the way they spoke and how he copied tobirama's tone of voice he carefully said, "Is this an appropriate," he said that word slowly making sure to pronounce it right, "way for me to speak?"

The commander nodded, "You are using the same kind of tone as when you were relaying what Tobirama-sama was saying to Third-sama."

Naruto gave a firm nod.

"Good to start with, just remember to not let people connect your mask to you."

"Understood commander." Naruto said respectfully.

"As your not an actual Anbu we can be more thorough in your training, rather than the crash course we typically just give until the Anbu choose what branch they specialize in. We already know that you need to specialize in information delivery at the moment."

His guardian appeared about halfway through that statement and took his place behind Naruto.

The next few hours they went over basic hand signs, such as what, who, where, why, and how, after Naruto started working on those his guardian commented that learning a different way to communicate those basic questions with shimmers would be beneficial. Relaying this to the Commander he agreed. It didn't take them long to develop a way to communicate those 5 questions with the shimmers.

His guardian agreed to spread the word of the gestures. If naruto twitched his head a bit the question was who, if he moved his left arm he was asking what, his right arm was where. His left leg was why, and his right was how.

Naruto had quite a lot to learn, but his training was only going to be every few days with the Anbu to give him a chance to memorize and learn how to form the hand seals. Then Anbu numbers were done with just one hand. Naruto was able to quickly memorize how to do 0-10, then the commander started him on the individual letters, spelling out actual words was time consuming, but it was a good way to be able to surely deliver the message. The Commander said that if he could memorize and the learn the hand signs at a decent pace he would be done with the first bit in a half a year. That being said he didn't expect Naruto to remember all the letters right away, he just wanted Naruto to remember what he could, if he didn't think the hand sign was correct than he didn't want Naruto to practice it.

Finally Naruto was done for the day. The commander took him outside and then used shunshin to get him to a place where he was alone, then he handed him a scroll. The commander showed him how to unseal it and then how to reseal it, Naruto unsealed his backpack and other clothes, quickly changing he placed his mask and outfit into the scroll. "I will find you when it is time for your next training."

Naruto beamed, "Got it!" He said and left it was getting late and he was hungry again. Time for more ramen.

 **A/N things are progressing along! XP I hope you enjoy and I have quiet a few twists in** **store** **that I doubt any of** **y'all** **can predict. *Smirks* Have a good day everyone! In case you didn't read the top Author Note** **This is actually chapter Nine, but I posted it as chapter 8 yesterday, so if this chapter seems familiar it is because I messed up, the real chapter 8 has been updated.**


	9. Chapter 9

OoOoO- Anbu Commander -OoOoO

He focused on his senses and felt Naruto's chakra which was like a beacon with how much of it the boy had. Going to the location he found himself surprised with how secluded it was, a small clearing off the side of one of the paths up the Hokage monument. 'Your dismissed for now' He told Sloth who was the one currently watching Naruto. The boy was sitting on a bench gazing at the flowers absentmindedly. The boy looked to the side before looking up at him. "You found a pretty secluded spot." He commented making it obvious that he was looking around. Naruto gave a simple nod, he gave silent approval for not answering the unasked question. "Put on your mask and this outfit, I will take you to begin your training." He ordered the boy. The boy came over to him and he handed the boy his outfit.

The boy changed clothes, relatively quick for a kid but still slow for even a genin. The Commander scolded himself for thinking that, Naruto has had no training, and was in fact only six years old, he should remember that the boy would have to be trained patiently. He doubted that Naruto could truly understand the importance his ability gave him. After the boy shoved his clothes into his backpack he grabbed it and sealed them into a scroll which he placed in his pocket.

He watched as the boy turned to the bench before speaking, "Not really, but because of my ability I need to learn how to provide information to the third."

He frowned and questioned, "What spirit are you talking with Nomani?" He did not like not knowing what was going on and the fact that there were invisible people around sent him into paranoid mode.

"I am speaking with Hashi-chan." Naruto said with a foxy grin before the boy stuck his tongue out at the bench. The commander frowned behind his mask Hashi… as in Hashirama the first hokage?

"Uh Huh, cause my guardian mentioned he was always annoyed when you called him chan. So nah," Naruto said to the bench, where the commander was forced to assume Hashirama was. "See ya later sad-shimmer!" The boy commented over his shoulder as he walked to him. Hashirama being called sad-shimmer… The Anbu commander supposed that the codename was acceptable, after all no one who heard the stories of the first could ever think of the man as sad. The commander picked Naruto up and used the shunshin to take them to there front entrance to the Anbu building, it might seem like it would be obvious, but in fact none of the valuable information was kept here, this was just the place for them to hang out in there off time, or to train new recruits. A lot of the anbu had no outside life and the mask was there only identity and so they lived in this building.

"What was that?" Naruto asked.

"A shunshin." The commander replied.

"Cool."

The commander entered the building and Naruto followed without having to be told. They passed by several other Anbu who were shocked at the tiny new Anbu following him, 'Who is the boy?' Lion asked as he passed by.

'Special training recruit.' He replied back, they others weren't to know that it was Naruto being trained, but there was no way to hide that a boy was being trained. Better to satisfy their curiosity with what he could, than to have them try and find out themselves. He glanced to the boy who seemed oblivious to the communication going on, he would have to fix that so the boy could see and communicate at Anbu speed. The boy would need that to be able to provide and receive information as quickly as possible.

He brought them into a blank room, this room was now Naruto's training room and if the boy was accepted to be a full Anbu member when he was old enough than it would become his personal room if he so choose. "Today I will begin your training on learning the Anbu hand signs, this is useful for conveying messages to any Anbu you need to, for now we will just focus on learning the words, but as you get a basic grasp on it we will work on your speed at forming the signs, as well as training your eyes to read the signs at high speed. Also when you are around other Anbu you need to hide your identity, the mask you have gives your hair a more generic hair color of brown, and it can mask your voice, but people can still recognize from your speech patterns. Therefore when you wear the mask you need to be able to change your speech patterns. Your body language as well, the way you hold yourself can give you a way to those skilled enough." He explained to the boy trying to make it as clear as possible to the child. Why had he recommended this again? Ah yeah cause the boy can speak with spirits no one else can see.

He saw the boy start thinking, and he inwardly twiched at how much of the boys thoughts and emotions could be read through his posture. That would be fixed eventually. He watched as the boys posture change, it reminded him of how the boy shifted his posture when he was imitating Tobirama. The boy slowly spoke as he said, "Is this an appropriate way for me to speak?" The commander gave a nod.

"You are using the same kind of tone as when you were relaying what Tobirama-sama was saying to Third-sama." He stated, it was relatively different from how the boy normally sounded. Eventually the boy would be able to switch between the two easily, for now though if the boy needed a bit of time that was fine.

Naruto gave a firm nod in response to his statement.

"Good to start with, just remember to not let people connect your mask to you." He told him.

"Understood commander." Naruto said respectfully.

"As your not an actual Anbu we can be more thorough in your training, rather than the crash course we typically just give until the Anbu choose what branch they specialize in. We already know that you need to specialize in information delivery at the moment." He told the boy.

The next few hours they went over basic hand signs, such as what, who, where, why, and how, after Naruto started working on those hand signs he made good progress than he tilted his head, and then looked at the commander, "My guardian says that it would be good for me to develop a way to ask those five questions to the shimmers silently."

He nodded it was a good idea, taking a bit of time they managed to quickly develop a system Naruto could use to communicate with the spirits silently. Then they continue on with him showing Naruto the signs and saying what it was and Naruto copying the hand sign and repeating what it was. The boy had a lot to learn and he doubted the boy could memorize all of it, but as long as he remembered a fourth of it correctly by the time they next met then the boy would be doing good.

Then he was finished training Naruto for the day, after taking him to a place where no one would spot Naruto he handed the boy a sealing scroll and taught him how to use it. The boy took his stuff out and changed and then sealed his Anbu stuff in the scroll, "I will find you when it is time for your next training." He told the boy.

The boy grinned brightly and said, "Got it!" then the boy turned and wandered off.

He watched for a moment before he made his way to the Hokage tower. 'Clear out' He signed to the Anbu who were in the hokage's office and they left.

"How did it go?" The third asked looking at him.

"Nomani is learning well and the guardian had him develop a way so he could silently communicate with the shimmers. I have set him to start learning the basics. I have also started him on developing his alter ego without telling him that was what it is."

"Good, anything else to report."

"When I found him he was in a clearing, he spoke with a shimmer he called Hashi-chan. I thought he was referring to the first hokage Hashirama. But I am not a hundred percent sure."

"And the Anbu who was watching him?"

"Sloth, I will alert you to what he reports when he reports."

"Good, dismissed."

He left the Hokage's office.

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

He woke up with a yawn, tiredly getting ready for the academy he stumbled through his morning routine, he had stayed up late last night practicing those hand signs with his guardian. He went to the academy and sat next to Shino who he greeted with a tired hello.

The boy said hello back and then Naruto tried to fall asleep, though his guardian kept waking him back up. But as the time passed and the tiredness faded Naruto found himself awake again. In that your tired but now your awake so you can't fall asleep sort of tired way.

The school day passed without anything interesting happened, afterwards he went to the clearing to once more speak with Hashirama.

"Hello." He greeted smiling.

The shimmer looked at him, but didn't say anything. "My guardian said that you were one of the best storytellers." Naruto mentioned after about ten minutes of sitting in silence.

Hashirama shrugged.

A few more minutes of silence passed before Naruto spoke up again, "So for christmas last year jiji came to visit me, yeah, and Tobirama happened to be following him, well since my guardian wasn't expecting another shimmer to visit, especially Tobirama he wasn't henged to hide his appearance as he mentioned he did, I never saw him being henged though I think it's something to do with my ability, anyways Tobirama waltzes right through the wall, instant tension. Like it was so thick you could see it. Anyways because I couldn't help but glance between the two jiji learned about my ability. But later the two started bickering like an old married couple. I guess they both reached there point cause they started throwing weapons at each other. I had to duck! One of them flew right over my head, and while now that I think about it, the weapon probably wouldn't have hurt me I didn't realize that at the time. Anyways I told them no fighting in my apartment and they just moved the fight outside my place. Though recently the two seemed to be getting along a bit better, they aren't instantly at each other's throat… I wonder what happened." Naruto rambled on.

Hashirama looked a bit amused, "Your guardian… what does he look like?"

"He has long spiky hair, and a high collared shirt. I think he said that his hair was black, but I can't really remember."

Hashirama paused, "It can't be… he said that Madara chose to pass on…" He muttered out loud not really to Naruto.

"Who said Madara passed on?"

"Izuna." Hashirama said before he closed his mouth and turned away though not before Naruto saw the pain in the man's eyes.

Naruto tried to get the man to talk for another hour, but Hashirama said nothing. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He exited out of the field and went to his guardian, "I got closer, he mentioned that someone named Izuna told him Madara had passed on."

His guardian clenched his fist, "Tobirama might have more info, he mentioned Izuna spoke to him as well." He said, pausing he turned to Naruto who was just looking at him with a smile, "When you finally get him to see reason… tell that idiot that I miss him will you?"

Naruto nodded, "Of course."

Naruto saw his guardian glance at him again as they finally made it back to his apartment. "Why do you not call me by my name? I'm sure you figured it out by now."

He shrugged to the shimmer, "To me you are my guardian, you never complain about me calling you that, but if you would rather I call you Madara I will." He told his guardian.

His guardian shook his head, "You can call me what you want."

Naruto beamed, "Than I shall continue calling you guardian."

The shimmer nodded at him and ruffled his hair. Naruto froze after the man was done and touched his hair, he… he had felt the man ruffle his hair. His guardian was staring in shock as well. Slowly he lowered his hand onto Naruto's head again only for it to pass through.

After that moment of weirdness the rest of the day passed as per normal with his guardian helping him learn the hand signs. The next day he went to the academy, spent recess with Shino, then after school he spent more time with Hashirama, which while the man was okay with chatting about some stuff other topics had him avoiding it or refusing to say anything. It was an hour or so after he arrived at the clearing when the commander appeared. Naruto changed into his Anbu clothes and then they went to the building. The Commander tested him and was surprised that Naruto had managed to get half of the signs down, he went over the signs again and spent a few hours helping Naruto learn the signs. Then they were done for the day.

The next day revolved much around the same though the commander didn't appear and so Naruto spent the time learning with his guardian.

Finally though it was the weekend, and Naruto remembered that Tobirama said he would train him. Getting up and eating breakfast he wondered what the man would train him in. Naruto was about to go and find the man when the shimmer walked through his wall. Tobirama looked at him, "Follow me." He commanded walking back out the wall again.

"Tch. He could have been more polite." His guardian grumbled.

Naruto ran out after him slamming his door shut behind him. Soon they arrived at a training field. "The first thing we are going to work on is your chakra control. Now because you have a larger chakra pool than others your age it will be harder to start with a basic leaf sticking, so we will begin with Tree walking." He he demonstrated, "To do this exercise you need to push chakra to your feet in order to stick to the surface, too much chakra and you will blast off the tree, to little and you won't stick," Tobirama looked at him, "There are two common ways of learning this exercise, one is to lay down with your feet placed against the trunk until you find the amount to stick, though this is usually prefered by people with lower amounts of chakra so they can raise it until they stick. The other method is to run up the tree, this is prefered with those with larger chakras that need to learn to place less in. Because of your larger chakra you should start with the tree running method. Most of this is just trial and error, so after today this will be up to you to complete in your own time until you get it down."

The boy nodded and he began practicing the exercises. Around lunch time Tobirama gave him an hour and a half break. Naruto got food and then went to Hashirama's clearing where he told the man about what was happening. The first hokage seemed happy listening to him ramble on about stuff. Naruto even forgot the passage of time chatting away to the first, but the man let him know that an hour had passed and so Naruto went to train with Tobirama again.

The next day sunday he mostly spent training by himself, though he did visit with Hashirama, the only new thing was that later in the day the Hokage summoned him to the office and Naruto found that the third decided that unless an emergency happened than a brief weekly meeting would suffice to get a report about what was happening, at least for now anyways.

The next week passed in a simple fashion he went to the academy, spent recess with Shino who was becoming his best friend, then the day would end and he would go spend roughly an hour with Hashirama before either the Anbu commander would show up or Naruto would go practice his own training in the Anbu hand signs and tree walking. Another week passed and two things happened, one Naruto finished tree walking, and he fully memorized the very beginning of the Anbu hand signs. Tobirama came and taught him the next chakra exercise water walking. His guardian continued to help him with the academy roll, and though Naruto never said it outloud his guardian was like the father he never had.

Though he did finally get around to asking if the shimmers knew why everyone hated him, "We do, but it is not our place to tell you, if my student has decided not to tell you then it is his choice." Tobirama had stated as his answer.

His guardian had sighed, "I would tell you… but Tobirama has made it very clear what he would do if I told you." His guardian shuddered. "How Tobirama even found that thing I have no idea…" his guardian murmured a far off gaze in his eyes.

As for his Anbu training the Commander started teaching him the next set, which was basic words such as the five village names basic ninja tools, days of the week, months and finally words for emergency, invasion, and other such things.

This was how his next half a year passed, he would go to the academy, spend time with shino during recess, and then when the day ended he would spend time with Hashirama. The man seemed to open up a bit more and slowly pieces of what happened came together.

Apparently Madara's brother Izuna hated Hashirama's clan and never wanted the peace, with his dying breath he told Madara to not make peace. Madara though did, much to Izuna's displeasure, but the shimmer had a sense of duty to his brother and as the people of konoha died and become shimmers, Izuna made a spirit version of Konoha. Before the shimmers had been disorganized, fighting against each other and the filth that polluted the inbetween world. But when Hashirama died, a while after supposedly killing Madara. Izuna had been pissed at the man and let him have it. Izuna had said that Hashirama should have tried harder. That he should have paid attention to Madara. Hashirama didn't repeat the words Izuna had said, but rather gave Naruto the gist of it piece by piece. Izuna left to go live in the spirit clan grounds stating that he wasn't leaving until he was able to give Tobirama a piece of his mind. So Hashirama took charge of the spirit konoha, but the words Izuna said haunted him. And from what Naruto could gather drove him deep into depression. When Tobirama arrived he passed the duties to him before fleeing and locking himself here in the clearing, where he resided ever since. Hashirama said that he couldn't even pass on unless someone forcefully moved him on, since to move on willingly you needed to be at peace with yourself.

As for his training with Tobirama the man focused on chakra control, but he also started Naruto on the hand signs. Once Naruto could make all the hand signs perfectly and had them memorized Tobirama started him on an exercise to help increase Naruto's speed at them and to smooth the transitioning. It started as a simple pattern start with one like Monkey then follow it with Dragon, Then Monkey again then Rat Monkey then Bird, so on and so on. The pattern ended up looking like Monkey Dragon Monkey Rat Monkey Bird Monkey Snake Monkey Ox Monkey Dog Monkey Horse Monkey Tiger Monkey Boar Monkey Ram Monkey Hare. Once that was complete you move to the next sign in this case Dragon and follow the same kind of pattern, Dragon Monkey Dragon Rat Dragon Bird… etc etc. The point of the exercises was to get you familiar with the hand signs and to transition between any of them smoothly. The two-step as it was called was only the basic start of it, some of the more demanding teachers made there students do a three-step in which the pattern would be Monkey Dragon Rat Monkey Rat Bird Monkey Bird Snake, and so on so forth, then with the dragon it would be Dragon Monkey Rat Dragon Rat Bird. The three step was supposed to be able to help further refine the hand signs and to help with the transitions some more. But as it was time consuming most decided that it was not needed. Such was not the case with Tobirama as he told Naruto once he became proficient in the two-step than he would be doing the three-step.

As for his Anbu training he was learning the hand signals at a good pace and finished the basics in hand signings a couple weeks ahead of schedule, but that was good as it meant they could move him onto the more advance stuff such as being able to read the hand signs at high speed and to form them at high speed. Which usually shinobi developed the speed as they learned through missions and such, Naruto didn't have that time as they never knew when he might need to be able to rapidly communicate with the Anbu about something. Which his training with Tobirama helped as he needed decent chakra control, which he now had, in order to channel chakra to his eyes in order to help see the hand signs. This was a trick developed by other clans to try and mimic the sharingan. While it did what it was supposed to and enhanced the person's vision so they could see faster things, it didn't help with the mental process of understanding what was going on faster. But he was also tasked with sending chakra into his arms and hands so he would be able to move him faster, though again this wouldn't be much of a help if his brain couldn't process the information at the same time. It was only beneficial to use at the speed of what the brain could progress, after that it wasn't much help. But still so long as his brain could process the information then it would be useful. Which led to his next training, getting his brain used to processing at a higher speed.

Which luckily enough was relatively simple. It involved sparring, at first the Commander had him learn the academy basic taijutsu stance and it's kata's, saying that eventually Naruto would need to develop his own or inherit a taijutsu form from someone else. The commander then spared against him starting at what he said was the average genin speed, which was still really fast for Naruto. The man only wanted him to dodge to the best of his abilities and he wasn't putting much force into his punches, only enough to leave a light bruise, that with Naruto's healing would most likely not even form. As Naruto got used the speed and was starting to dodge more and more of the attacks the commander would slowly increase the speed, though for now Naruto had only just started this training.

But that was just his training, for his personal life he spent the few hours of freetime he had with Shino, even meeting the boy's family who he was surprised to find welcoming him, but Naruto could understand it, as the Aburames were often avoided by the civilians who felt that hosting bugs inside of the body was just creepy and weird. It was one of the reasons Naruto and Shino had bonded, no one else wanted to be around the two. With his friendship with the boy, Naruto stopped causing as many pranks.

Which led to what happened now. The two boys had decided to go to one of the lesser used training fields at the edge of the village to hunt for interesting bugs. It was then they came across a group of people, who the two thought were civilians. One of the group had come up to the boys wearing what looked to be a sheepish smile. "Hey, were a group of traveling merchants, we got lost though, do you think you could help us out?" The man asked.

"It is of no problem to help you, because helping civilians is the duty of shinobi." Shino stated in a pleasant voice. Well pleasant to Naruto, to anyone else it would be monotone.

The merchant smiled and waved the rest of the group over. "Yeah! A mission dattebayo!" Naruto said with a grin.

Naruto heard the group whispering behind him, "Naruto." His guardian said going tense.

Rolling his left shoulder he asked 'what?'

"These are not civilians, the way they are moving, these are ninja."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly, what could he do. "Say say shino," Naruto started, the first thing he had to do was alert the boy to the danger they were in.

Before he could even blink though Shino was knocked out and being held tightly by one of the shinobi. Another man grabbed him tightly holding him. "I can't believe our luck, this will definitely get us in favor of the Tsuchikage " One of them said.

"Shut up." The woman said.

That was the last he heard before they knocked him unconscious. He woke up to found himself bound, though they had left his mouth free. He was being carried on the shoulder of the largest man in the small group of five. Looking around he saw his guardian keeping pace with the group and evil look in his eyes as he glared at them his guardian even had his Sharingan activated Naruto looked at his guardian who gave him a smirk. A sense of calmness spread through him.

"Looks like the brat's awake." One of the man who had a scar running down his cheek said.

The only woman of the group nodded. "What's your name brat?" She questioned him as they jumped down to the forest floor.

Frowning at them he rotated his left shoulder a bit again. "For now just answer there questions, if they ask anything that could put the village at risk then don't answer."

"Naruto Uzumaki, may I know the name of the people who kidnapped me?" he asked politely.

The woman looked at him before nodding "I am Chikyu." She had long hair, and she currently wore a basic merchant looking shirt and pants. "The big guy who is carrying you is Asusukara." The man grunted, "Hes a charming one isn't he." She said sarcastically. "The man with the scar on his cheek is his brother, Asubirudo." This man gave a nod of his head. "He's more of a conversationalist then his brother, The man who keeps bouncing around like he is on a sugar rush is Jishin." Naruto watched as the man ignored Chikyu introducing him instead bouncing around. "The tiny one is Mimizu."

Naruto gave a nod, slightly surprised that they had actually given their names. "So why did you kidnap me?" He questioned looking around before he asked, "And where's Shino?"

"We left the pipsqueak behind, you on the other hand are worth quite a fortune of Konoha wants you back, and I'm sure they will…" Chikyu said grinning, "Tsuchikage-Sama is definitely going to be pleased with us."

"Umm why do you think I'm worth a fortune and that Konoha would want me back, I'm not even a ninja yet dattebayo." Naruto said trying to gather information.

The five had started walking, with Asubirudo carrying him still. "Really, why would Konoha not want the son of the blasted Namikaze back?" The woman retorted with a roll of her eyes.

"Who's Namikaze?" Naruto asked confused.

The woman turned to him her eyes narrowed a bit as she slowly said "Minato Namikaze," as if speaking to a particularly slow child. Naruto huffed still not knowing who she was talking about. "The fourth Hokage." She said.

"Oh! The yondaime." Slowly things clicked together, "Wait you guys think I'm the son of the fourth? I told ya my last name is Uzumaki."

"So you were given you mothers last name then to protect you."

"Um okay I can't deny that. But if I was the son of the fourth, i'm pretty sure that the village would at least like me."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

"Tch, annoying." He said copying sloths favorite saying, "I'm not well like by Konoha." He stated with a huff.

"Why are you not liked?"

"I dunno." Naruto replied.

"Well we'll do a blood test to see if your the son of Namikaze, but you look exactly like him minus the whisker marks." She decided.

Curious he asked, "What will you do with me if I am not the son of the yondaime?

She shrugged, "That is for Tsuchikage-sama to decide. Why are you not resisting or trying to scream for help?"

"Meh, I don't really see the point, if they even realize I'm missing the civilians are more likely to celebrate me going missing then want my return, and if the ninja want to find me than the Hokage will send a pursuit squad." Naruto said, making sure to call the old man hokage for once. "Besides if I scream or try to resist you guys will most likely knock me out, it's much more interesting being awake."

Why was he taking this so calmly? Was what he asked himself even as he tried to answer the woman. Sure those are all logical answers, but… Naruto glance at his guardian who smirked at him, "Apparently my Sharingan can affect you, not any of the other living… I have temporary suppressed your emotions so you can think clearly."

Interesting. Naruto thought, "Anyways what village is Tsuchikage the leader of?"

"Iwagakure, how old are you anyways brat?"

"6 almost 7!" Naruto said.

"Your a couple years younger than Tsuchikage-sama's granddaughter." Asusukara, the cheek scar guy, spoke.

"This is good for the jutsu, Jishin." Chikyu commanded.

The bouncy guy stopped and did a few hand signs before clapping them causing a gust of wind to blow outwards. "Good now let's get moving again, if anybody is in pursuit that won't throw them off for long."

The group took to the tree's again.

 **A/N: Who saw this coming? What do you think is going to happen? *Cackles* This was one of my favirote things to write for this story so far, and yeah I was planning this from the start.**


	10. Chapter 10

OoOoO- Tobirama -OoOoO

~10 minutes after Naruto gets kidnapped~

"WHAT!?" He demanded, shocked.

The spirit in front of him was cowering from his killer intent. "Leave." Tobirama stated with a growl. He turned to his student who was looking up a frown on his face. The anbu had left for some reason.

He glared at the third hokage, "Naruto has been kidnapped." He stated even though he knew it would be useless. Deciding to try something he focused all of his killing intent on the old man who used to be his student. The Hokage stood up.

"Sensei?" the man cautiously asked.

OoOoO- Sarutobi -OoOoO

He was doing his paperwork as per normal when he heard a faint noise, than he could feel a faint trace of killing intent, looking to his Anbu he noticed that they didn't feel anything, dismissing them he frowned.

Then he felt a stronger blast of Killing intent, still relatively faint… but it reminded him of his sensei. "Sensei?" he called out knowing he would get no answer, but if his teacher wanted to talk with him, why not just summon Naruto? His paranoia kicking in he grabbed his crystal ball. "Naruto Uzumaki." The crystal ball remained blank, there were only a few places in Konoha Naruto could be if it wasn't showing him. Summoning his Anbu in again he commanded, "Alert the Anbu, find Naruto Uzumaki."

The four bowed and disappeared. Ten minutes later the commander showed up. "Why are the forces searching for Uzumaki?"

"The crystal can not see him, there are some places the ball can not find in Konoha. Wasn't there a watch on him?"

"Yes. I do not know where Sloth is currently."

An hour later an Anbu came in carrying Shino Aburame, Naruto's only friend his age. The boy seemed groggy. "Hokage-sama, we found Heir Aburame knocked out on one of the outskirt training fields, Inu found Naruto's scent there mixed in with foreign scents, he couldn't place them with anyone he had met before, but he said they smelled of earth. He and Sloth, who showed up a few secs after we did, left to pursuit the scent trail and requested that backup be provided."

"Backup granted. Send Fox and Hummingbird to back them up, those three have the most experience with Naruto from protecting him from villagers." The Anbu bowed and left, "Shino-kun can you please tell me what happened."

"Me and Naruto were out at the training field looking for bugs. We found a group of what we assumed were civilians, they said they were a group of traveling merchants who got lost, we decided to help them. Naruto was saying something and then everything went black… If you send one of my clan members on the hunt they should be able to find him as one of my female Kikaichu were planted on him."

"Good Job, we will make sure one of the Aburame are alerted." He told shino smiling kindly. He saw the kid seem to fidget a bit, well fidget for the Aburame as he moved his glasses a bit. "We will bring Naruto back safely, your father will be here to pick you up in a few minutes."

Shino nodded.

The third sighed, he hated that he had to wait for more news, but with a team in pursuit, Naruto should be back with them by the end of the day.

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

"So how much longer until we reach this village of yours?" Naruto asked as he sat on top of the man's shoulder, the man was really huge, even bigger than an Akimichi. They had allowed him to sit upon the man's shoulder after he started complaining about his stomach hurting. The view was incredible from on top the man's shoulder.

"Another 3 and a half days" The woman responded.

"It's already been…" Naruto tried to think of how many it had been.

"14 hours since they have knocked you out." His guardian supplied.

"14 hours." Naruto finished.

"So? You don't think the major villages would be so close do you? Suna is the closest to Konoha and they are 3 days away. We are 4 days away from konoha, Kumo I believe is also 4 days, while Kiri is 5 days at least, because of the water. And those times are only if we are uninterrupted and move at a decent pace. Civilians take weeks to move anywhere." Chikyu answered, over the hours she had taken it upon herself to inform Naruto thoroughly on any questions he happened to have.

"You know perhaps you might want to stay in Iwa." Asusukara spoke up.

"Huh?" Naruto asked blinking.

"Well, you said your village hates you, yeah? Then why not decided to stay in Iwa? Well you'll be welcome if you don't take after the bastard Namikaze."

Naruto shook his head, "Nope I'm loyal to Konoha, I have my friends that i've made there." Like Shino, Tobirama, Hashirama, the commander, and jiji. And Fox, hummingbird, and Sloth, though he didn't interact much with them, just once or twice a week when they brought him groceries and stuff after seeing how the civilians try to rip him off.

He knew that one was following him at almost all the time if the commander wasn't with him, which brought the question why one of his guard weren't there.

OoOoO- Sloth -OoOoO

~an hour after Naruto gets kidnapped~

He stifled a yawn as he got up before he froze and cursed himself, he had fallen asleep on the job. Man the commander was going to be so annoying and chew him out for this… but first he had to find Naruto, hey if he could find Naruto before the next shift was supposed to start, well what they didn't know wouldn't hurt.

"Over here!" Inu shouted. Inu and Tora were standing over the body of Shino Aburame, Naruto's friend. Sloth cursed under his breath and jumped down.

"I have Naruto's scent. Tora take Shino to the hokage and request backup. Sloth and I will go in pursuit of the scent trail."

Tora nodded and picked up Shino, "Understood."

Inu looked towards him and then he started chasing after the trail. Sloth started sweating bullets, Inu wasn't saying anything. There was no threatening aura. And that was scarier than if there was. He whimpered. He prayed nothing bad was happening to Naruto.

(When the Anbu later heard how he had fell asleep on the job and that was what cause Naruto to be kidnapped they started placing bets on how Inu was going to make Sloth suffer.)

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

Naruto yawned after waking up, seeing he was still with Team Earth as he mentally called them he shrugged and shifted to sit up on the man's shoulder. "Did yall sleep at all?" he asked, when he had gone to sleep they were moving, and they were still moving now.

Chikyu chuckled, "Yes we did, only for a few hours though, enough for us not to be so sluggish before we continued on."

"Ah. I'm bored."

"Janken?" Asubirudo grunted out. Naruto blinked, that was the first he had heard the man who was carrying him speak.

"Sure!" As if he had passed some test the group relaxed.

The next few hours passed with the duo competing in a fierce match of Janken. Eventually the two became so accustomed to what the other was likely to do and then they started tieing. Naruto glanced at his guardian and stared at him and so his guardian rolled his eyes but activated his Sharingan allowing Naruto to cheat. After twenty consecutive wins Naruto was giggling as the big man seemed to be getting frustrated. So they called it off, but it did allow Naruto a temporary reprieve from his boredom. And even though he may have cheated a little bit he still did a little victory thing and declared himself the Janken king.

His guardian snorted, "Idiot."

Naruto pouted, 'Meanie.' He signed subtly.

"Hashirama is not infecting you with his stupid depression cloud is he?" His guardian questioned with narrowed eyes. Naruto just grinned widely.

An hour later his stomach rumbled, "I'm hungry." he complained to his captors.

Mimizu who was the one who carried extra food rations apparently, scuttled over to him and handed him a ration bar. "Thanks." Naruto said and ate it wrinkling his nose at the taste.

"Does Iwa have ramen?" He asked.

"What sort of question is that?" Chikyu asked.

"I love ramen. Ramen is the food of the gods!" His guardian glared at him. Naruto sweatdropped and added, "Inarizushi is a close second." and truly it was, the few times he managed to get the food it was really good.

"We have both ramen and inarizushi."

The rest of the days passed with not much happening, other than Naruto playing his way through the rest of the members and after playing with them awhile where they started tying often because they kept trying to double bluff each other, then he would have his guardian help him cheat, which he was not ashamed of. And ruthlessly defeated them.

"You are the Janken king" they agreed. "We might have to enter you into the Janken tournaments… that's the only way to make it official." Chikyu said grinning money signs appearing in her eyes.

"Say what color is Iwa anyways?"

"Color?"

"Well because we're fire country the Hokage has a red hat yeah, so I was wondering if since Iwa is earth country if your Tsuchikage had a brown cap."

"You'll just have to see for yourself."

Naruto sweatdropped, "I can't see color though." he wasn't whining when he said that, honestly he wasn't! (He was.)

The five stopped and stared at him there eyes wide, "You… can't see color?"

"No, it's not the big of a deal." at first yes, but now he was used to seeing the world in greys.

"Maybe, but it means that it's harder for you to see the beauty of nature." Mimizu spoke for the first time, his voice was quiet and small. Apparently Mimizu rarely spoke if ever.

"Yeah, I guess."

"We will be in Iwa in an hour brat. We're gonna have to tie you backup now though." Chikyu said.

"Awww why? You know I'm not gonna bother to escape."

"I guess." She said agreeing. "Though if you do try to run off, a lot of people in Iwa hate Namikaze and will try and kill you until your presence is announce or if your with one of the ninja."

"Right." Naruto said rapidly nodding.

They arrived at Iwa and the group made its way to a building. Eventually they were let into a room which had an old man in it. The man looked as old as the Hokage. Behind him stood a shimmer who looked like he was wrapped in bandages. The bandaged man paused at seeing his guardian.

"Why are you here Madara Uchiha?" The man asked at the same time as the tsuchikage spoke up.

"What are you five doing back here so soon." the man demanded irritated not even bothering to look at them.

"Hn, you two look familiar" His guardian mused ignoring the bandaged man. The bandaged man was about to speak up but paused when he heard what Chikyu said.

"Sir, we believe we have found the Namikaze's kid."

This caused him to look up. His eyes locked onto Naruto's "Hello!" He chirped in greeting.

"You do look like you could be that bastards offspring." The man stated before turning to Chikyu, "Why is he not bound then? Actually just give me the full report now."

And so the woman did, Naruto quickly getting bored looked around before shrugging and asked Asubirudo, "You up for another round of Janken?"

The office became silent and Naruto felt people staring at him. "What? I'm bored."

"The brat of yours sure is disrespectful." The bandaged man said. Madara simply raised an eyebrow at that but shrugged.

"You have already defeated all of us… multiple times." Asusukara stated.

Naruto frowned, he saw his guardian get a mischievous smirk on his face. "How about you ask the old man to play you."

The bandaged man blinked as Naruto grinned then as he looked at the old man, who was the Tsuchikage, "Will you play Janken with me?"

"Can.. can the brat see us? I had heard rumors…" The bandage-shimmer said looking more closely at Naruto.

The man stared at him his eyes wide before he threw his head back and laughed. "Sure why not. I'm the ranking king at Janken here in Iwa though brat, you're gonna lose. We will do 50 hands, first to get twenty five wins is declared winner, you up for this brat?"

Naruto grinned, the first twenty four he would play as his own and then he would have his guardian cheat him to victory.

When his guardian activated his Sharingan and told Naruto what to pick Bandage-shimmer said, "Your cheating."

"It is only cheating if he is caught, and none of the other living will know." His Guardian told him with a smirk.

Fifty rounds latter and Naruto won to the shock of the old man. "Say say old man what's your name?"

"Onoki, and I ain't old brat." He grumbled, "You got lucky brat."

"I'm the Janken king!" Naruto declared.

Onoki growled, "You can't say that without going through the tournament brat."

"Tournament?" Naruto asked interested this was the second time it had been mentioned.

"Yep, the next tournament is tomorrow, you've come just in time for the weekly semi-casual tournament."

"Sweet!"

"Interesting… it is accepted that the people of Janken tournament will cheat if they can, but if there caught they will be kicked out, and yet your brat can cheat and they won't know." the Bandage-shimmer spoke calmly.

Onoki looked at him, "Asu brothers, take him down to get his bloodworks done, we should have the yellow flash's Dna somewhere, also see if you can see who that bastard reproduced with. Then bring him back here" He ordered.

"Understood Tsuchikage-sama" The two brothers said before leaving Naruto being planted on top of Asubirudo's shoulders. They went to the hospital where they drew a vial of his blood. Asusukara said that it would take a few days before the bloodwork was done. They made there way back to Onoki's office.

"Now… what to do with you. Procedure says I should just throw you into a cell until the blood work is done, but Chikyu reports that you are surprisingly cooperative." he said looking at him.

Naruto shrugged, "I would rather not be in the cell, and besides I'm curious to know who my parents are. No one has ever told me."

"I have some of my shinobi spreading the word to the others to leave you alone. Until then you need a personal guard…" the old man mused.

"Yo old man!" A shout was heard as the door was thrown open, Naruto turned around from his perch on Asubirudo's shoulder.

"Woah! Old man where did you find a mini me, un?" The older boy declared, he looked to be around 9 or 10.

"Deidara, meet Naruto Uzumaki." Onoki stated flatly. "He is not a mini you Deidara. He is a mini namikaze."

The boy waved him off, "But look at our hair old man!"

Onoki's eyes narrowed.

The bandage man sighed.

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean our hair?"

"Don't you see how our shade of hair is the exact same shade?" the boy asked looking at him.

Crossing his arms he said, "I'm colorblind, so no I don't know what color your hair is," Naruto frowned trying to even remember his own hair and eye color, the images were fuzzy, but he was pretty sure he had blonde hair and blue eyes… maybe.

"So what do you think of art then?" Deidara asked his smile turning slightly maniacal.

Onoki growled, "Explosions are not an art Deidara!"

"Of course it is! Art is an explosion! Un!" The boy shouted back.

The two started arguing. "Unartistic old man!"

"Arrogant youngster!" Onoki shouted back.

Naruto amusedly watched the two argue back and forth. "I kinda wished I had some popcorn." he whispered.

(Years later he was standing next to Kisame with a bag of popcorn as he amusedly watched Sasuke and Itachi fight. The shark man happily snagged handfuls of the buttery goodness.)

A few minutes later the arguments were starting to get repetitive and so Naruto decided to end it and using his most innocent voice he asked, "Say say Deidara-san you any good at Janken?"

"I'm one of the best! Your looking at number three." Deidara said with a smirk.

"Would you mind playing with me?" Naruto asked ignoring the number three.

"Of course! I got to practice for the tournament tomorrow where you're going down old man!" Deidara said with a large smirk.

"Alright then, Deidara you and the Asu brothers are now Naruto's guards for his duration of his stay here, after his bloodworks are confirmed I'll decide what to do with him then."

"Huh?" Deidara asked dumbfounded.

"Naruto here was kidnapped from Konoha, since he is being cooperative… and he is only six years old then were allowing him to roam around with guards."

Deidara nodded. "Say say Deidara-san, after we play Janken can we get some ramen?"

"If you win we will have ramen… If I win were eating bakudan. We keep going until someone surrenders."

Naruto nodded and the two started for the next hour the two played while walking around Iwa. Unlike Konoha there wasn't as many shimmers wandering around, although the shimmers did have to look at him in shock and then with fear at his guardian staying a good distance away although they also look confused, cause the Bandage-shimmer was following him. Finally Naruto decided to end it and glanced at Madara who with a roll of his eyes activated his Sharingan and told Naruto what moves to do.

"H-how?" Deidara called out in schock about ten rounds later when he lost every single one.

"I am Janken King… or I will be after I defeat everyone in the tournament tomorrow." Naruto said with a grin.

"You evil kid."

Naruto smirked. "Ramen!" he declared.

"Yeah yeah." Deidara grumbled.

The group of four went to go eat ramen. Naruto wondered how Hashirama was doing… he hoped that the man was okay…

OoOoO- Hashirama -OoOoO

~Two days after Naruto has been kidnapped~

He frowned, Naruto hadn't come to see him in a couple days.. And the kid had made it a point to visit with him everyday even if only for a couple minutes. Feeling for the kids chakra he couldn't find it in Konoha. Where was Naruto, if the boy was taking a trip he was pretty sure the kid would have told him. What if something happened?

Looking out he made to stand up before shaking his head… it was too early to jump to conclusions… 'But you didn't pay enough attention to Madara. It's because of you that he left. If you hadn't been so self-absorbed, you could have saw how your 'Best Friend' was suffering.' Izuna's words haunted his mind.

What if Naruto was suffering right now? A bit of his old resolve coming back he stood up for the first time in forever. Staring at the clouds he felt as if Izuna was watching him even now, judging him. 'I won't fail you Naruto, not like I failed Madara…' Hashirama through to himself, it was time he made up for his failures.

Naruto once told him that he heard a sensei talking to his team, "So what if you fail? So what if you mess up once or twice, ore even a hundred times. Does that mean your going to give up? Because if your going to give up the first time things become tough than your not cut to be shinobi. No matter what you don't give up. You fight on. You continue with your head high no matter what and you do Konoha proud!" Naruto said that the man's words really struck a chord with him, and with his team apparently as they were looking at him with stars in their eyes.

Hashirama took a determined breath and he made his move, he strode over to the hokages tower where he felt his brothers chakra, he ignored the whispers of shock from the other spirits. "Hashirama!" His brother said clearly shocked as he stepped into the room.

"Where is Naruto?" He asked.

Tobirama blinked a couple times and smirked before he sighed, "I'm afraid that he has been kidnapped, our student sent a few ninja after him but they lost the trail, though the lot were heading in the direction of Iwa."

"I'm going to find him, is… is Naruto's guardian with him?" he declared before he hesitantly asked the last bit.

"Yes, but what is going to find him going to do, we can't communicate that fact with Sarutobi." Tobirama said.

"That is your job to figure out. And If I can find him then I can try and bring messages between him and you, if need be." Hashirama stated before he turned and left.

 **A/N: I hope your are enjoying! Please let me know what you think.**


	11. Chapter 11

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

The two boys quickly finished eating and then Deidara asked, "You never answered my question, un."

Naruto blinked, "What question?"

"What do you think of art?"

He shrugged, "I dunno, I like doodling, but other than my drawings I've never really seen any art."

Deidara stared at him in horror. "Follow me! I will show you my art!"

The two brothers behind him sighed. Naruto just shrugged and followed Deidara. Once at the training field Deidara brought out some clay objects that when Naruto got a closer look saw they were spider like things.

"Watch." Deidara said as he threw the spider. He made a hand seal and the spider enlarged becoming four times as big as before. "Katsu!" The supposed blonde shouted making a cross seal. The spider blew up in a large blast. Naruto watched the explosions happen, it was pretty cool, though he guessed it would be color if he wasn't colorblind.

"Well well what do you think?" The boy asked excited.

"It was really cool.. can you tell me the colors and stuff?" Naruto asked wondering what color the explosions were.

The older boy looked sheepish, "I'm sorry. I forgot you can't see colors… I guess not being able to see the beauty of the reds and oranges and the white when they blow up can diminish some of artistic beauty…"

Naruto just shrugged. For the next ten minutes Deidara rambled on about the artistic qualities of his explosions. The boy said he will be right back and five minutes later came back with crayons and paper. "I want to know what you saw, what colors will you need?"

"Grey, black, and white." Naruto said, he had done these a couple time for the hokage or his shimmers who wanted to know how he saw things.

He begun working on the drawing and an hour later he was done. "Deidara-san, the drawing." He said handing the drawing to the boy who had been working on his clay.

"You don't have to add the suffix," He commented walking over to Naruto, "Wow.. this is how you see my art?" Deidara asked.

"It's how I see everything, in varying shades of grey."

"You poor boy!" Deidara said throwing his arms around him.

Naruto flinched not used to people touching him. Deidara noticed, "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah… you just surprised me is all."

The older boy gave a small nod. Naruto yawned, it was starting to get a bit later in the day. "Huh, oh what's your sleeping arrangements?" Deidara asked.

Naruto shrugged, the older boy looked at his guards who also shrugged. "To the old man then!" Deidara shouted.

The boy ran off leaving Naruto once more to chase after him the two brothers keeping up with him. Naruto arrived a few seconds behind Deidara panting out of breath, the boy grinned and threw the door open, "Yo! Old man." he shouted as he entered. Naruto followed behind and the brothers shut the door behind him.

"Brat." Onoki grumbled giving the boy a glare. "What are you doing here?"

Deidara opened his mouth when the door slammed open again, "Old man!" A voice shouted. Naruto turned and saw it was a girl who looked only a couple years older than him and a year or two younger than Deidara.

"Kurotsuchi." Onoki said rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Are the rumours true that we captured the Namikaze's brat?" She demanded.

"We are doing the bloodwork for it, and what have I told you," He looked at both of them, "What have I told the both of you about entering my room in such a manor."

"To not," The two replied with similar eye rolls.

"Kurotsuchi, the blonde haired brat is Naruto Uzumaki, the one who the earth squad thought was Namikaze's brat."

Naruto gave a friendly wave, "Hia!"

She scowled at him, "What's he doing out of the cells then."

He pouted. Onoki scowled at her, "Uzumaki has been cooperative so we are allowing him some measure of freedom, besides he's only six."

"Im nearly seven!" Naruto added with a grin. "Say say, you good at Janken?" He asked with an overly innocent smile. One thing he was really liking about Iwa was that everyone seemed willing to play with him.

"I'm one of the best." The girl said arrogantly, "I'm number 5 on the leaderboard. 3 rounds of twenty one hands." She stated.

Naruto nodded his agreement. The two played and Naruto allowed her to win the first round rather thoroughly, then in the second round he made it as if he barely won. Then smirking in the third round he completely crushed her. His guardian smirked at him and muttered, "I taught him well."

Naruto just grinned. Bandage-shimmer sighed.

"So why did you come here Deidara?" Onoki asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah! What's Naruto's sleeping arrangements?"

"He will stay the night in the Bunbetsu no Aru hotel."

Naruto gave another yawn, "Thanks old man." Deidara said. "Let's go then Mini-me."

He gave a slow blink at that then shrugged and followed the older boy. Behind him he heard Onoki grumble to himself. Something about youngsters. Deidara led them to a rather nice looking Hotel. Then after checking with the receptionist and getting a room key Deidara led him to his room. "I'll come pick you up tomorrow. Since the tournament is semi-casual we'll have to get you some nicer clothes. Anyways goodnight little Naruto!"

"Goodnight!" Naruto said with a wave.

"Do not think your alone, you still have guards watching you even now." His guardian told him before Naruto could speak up. The bandage-shimmer had stayed back in the tsuchikage's office.

Naruto yawned and after laying down he fell asleep. He woke up to his shoulder being shaken. Startled he jumped away from whoever was touching him feeling panic. "Calm down Naruto! Its me, Deidara." the older boy said holding his hands up.

"Jeez! You gave me a heart attack, sneaking up on me when I'm sleeping like that." Naruto said taking a few breaths.

Looking around he saw his guardian who asked, "Would you like me to help suppress your emotions again?"

Naruto debated for a moment before giving a small nod, he didn't want to cause a scene because he had been freaking kidnapped by one of Konoha's biggest enemies! As he looked into his guardian's sharingan he felt a wave of calm come over him. Deidara was watching him with concern. "You okay?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, im fine now, i'm not used to being woken up like that."

Deidara just gave a slow nod in response, "Lets get some breakfast, and then we'll get you some better clothes, then well head over to the stadium, Old man Onoki said he will sponsor your entry into the tournament since you beat him in the casual game."

"Cool!"

The two went to eat some Bakudan before getting Naruto some new clothes, it was a lose top that Deidara said was grey with brown trimmings, because Naruto asked if it could be down, they added the leaf symbol in a red on the back. Cause Naruto was a loyal Konoha citizen, even if he was enjoying his vacation as he had decided to call this kidnapping scenario. A few minutes later he had his shirt, and then he was given a pair of black pants. Again according to Deidara. His guardian didn't say otherwise so Naruto believed the boy was telling him the truth on the colors.

He changed into the new clothes, which felt surprisingly soft on his skin. Deidara beamed at him, "Looking good!" he said, "Now the tournaments going to start in about an hour, but we got to get you signed up. Let's go find the old man."

So they went to the Tsuchikage's office. "Old man! You said you were gonna sponsor Naruto here! Lets get him signed up."

So the group left to the big stadium. Naruto was signed up, suddenly Naruto got an idea, "Onoki-sama," He started respectfully, "If I can do this entire tournament without losing a single hand is there a prize?"

The old man laughed, "Brat if you can do the entire tournament without losing a single hand, we'll make you an honorary Iwa shinobi, despite your ties to Konoha."

Naruto stared wide eye, he had just wanted to get some food if he could do it. Onoki chuckled. "Uzumaki, I don't know what tournament Konoha has, but we Iwa Shinobi take our Janken very seriously."

"I don't think Konoha has any tournament." Naruto mused.

"Really? Hmpf damn tree huggers." The man grumbled, "We don't know what tournaments Kiri or Suna have, just that they have one, but we know Kumo has speed tournaments."

Naruto nodded he looked to his guardian who smirked at him, "Yes I will help you not lose a single hand. Being considered an Honorary Ninja for a country not your own is a pretty big deal. I will explain more later if they do not properly explain it to you."

Announcements were made and then the tournaments were starting, Naruto faced off against his first opponent, there were hundred of other pairs sitting against each other. The first round was 3 rounds, with 21 hands, which was the common casual play apparently. Naruto played against his first victim, er opponent, and won easily not losing a single hand thanks to his guardian.

The first round ended quickly and then the second began, and then the third which they were now down to twenty five people, not including the top ten, who apparently didn't have to play against anyone else until there was a finalist from the common grounds. Names were drawn and the rounds were changed to 5 rounds of 21 hands.

Naruto played against his opponents and kept winning not losing a single hand, people were starting to realize now and where whispering. Finally he was declared the victor of the common ground and now had the option of challenging the great ten. But he had to first fight against number ten, and then work his way up before he was declared winner.

The rounds changed again, to three rounds of 50 hands. One by one he fought and defeated the great ten without losing a single hand until it was just him vs Onoki. "I underestimated you brat, I didn't think you could actually win without losing a single hand, but that ends here!" He declared as they sat at the table.

"I'm gonna win." Naruto stated with a smirk.

"Because this is the final battle, why don't we make this interesting, 3 rounds of a hundred hands. What does the audience say?" The announcer called out, the audience roared in approval.

His guardian snorted. The rounds started and Naruto fought against Onoki, his guardian calling out hand signs so Naruto would win without losing a single hand.

After a long and intense battle, Onoki was sweating heavily as Naruto grinned viciously. It was the last hand of the round. "Do paper." Madara said. Onoki clenched his hand and threw out his fist. Naruto smirked and at the same time his hand opened up into paper. He had won. Onoki stared in shock. "I don't know how you did it brat."

Naruto smirked at him, "I am Janken king!"

"Yes you are, for now anyways."

The announcer called out his victory and for a few seconds everything was quiet before the crowd started cheering. "Alright brat, well make you an honorary shinobi later today, but first let's get some food." Onoki said smirking at him. Naruto nodded, "You know if you didn't look so much like that damn Namikaze, I wouldn't think you could be his brat."

"What do ya mean?"

"The Namikaze bastard hated Janken."

Naruto stared wide eyed, "H-how?"

Onoki shook his head, "I don't know. I'm sure Konoha thinks we hate him because he slaughtered thousands of us, but thats standard ninja business, we despise him because he hated Janken." Onoki grumbled.

Naruto shuddered, "How can someone not like Janken? They must be inhuman."

Onoki nodded in agreement.

OoOoO- Minato -OoOoO

He paused from his mindless floating in the shinigami's stomach. "Why do I feel like my own son is doing something I despise?" Another pause, "And that for some reason he's talking with that old bastard Onoki about me?" He shrugged, "I must be going crazy, there's no way my son can like Janken, and be talking about me with Onoki."

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

Naruto sneezed.

"Alright brat, let's get you a headband." Onoki said.

"Yay! Thanks Onoki-sama" Naruto said with a grin. At least he was accepted here in Iwa, and if he could do it here then he could do it in Konoha!

"Congratulations Naruto!" Deidara shouted running up to him.

"How did a brat like you defeat grandfather and me?" Kurotsuchi demanded walking up to him as well.

"Grandfather?" Naruto asked confused.

"The old man there is my grandfather."

"Oh! Well I'm the Janken king thats why." Naruto said pompously before sticking his tongue out.

"You brat!" she shouted and came towards him with her fist raised, Naruto yelped and ran. "Get back here you brat!" She shouted.

"NO!" Naruto yelled back turning a corner and sliding under a cart, very used to being chased. A few minutes later he paused, he hadn't heard Kurotsuchi's voice for a few seconds.

Looking around he frowned wondering where he was at. Shrugging he looked for the Tsuchikage's building and started walking that direction.

"There you are Naruto!" Deidara shouted a few minutes later.

Naruto waved, "How did you escape from Kurotsuchi, that old man's granddaughter is one of the fastest of her age, faster then even most genin."

"Really? I guess it's cause I'm used to running away from the chunin back in Konoha after I pulled off a prank."

"Oh your a prankster?" Deidara asked.

"Yep."

"Cool."

The two continued walking, making there way to the tower. Once there they went up to Onoki's office. "Well congratulations Naruto, you're the first Konoha ninja to be made an Honorary member of Iwa, and to get into our Red alert book."

"Red alert book?"

"A red alert book, is a book of people who can ruin your pride and embarrass you to the fullest extent in different things. Like A-dono is known as the fastest person and if you ever try to get into a race with him your going to lose. You are in there as a Janken master, of course now if you lose against someone your reputation will take a hit. Basically the red alert book is just a list of people who are the master at something and choosing to challenge that person is usually not wise unless your confident. I used to be in it as Janken king since I haven't lost in over 50 years."

"Wow." Naruto said as he grabbed the Iwa headband he had been given, it was almost a normal Iwa headband except that the symbol had a circle around it.

"The blood work should be done tomorrow." Onoki stated with a smirk. "So long as you have the headband on you none of my ninja should give your trouble, once your blood work is done then I will send Konoha a message so they can pay up for us to give you back."

Naruto just nodded and tied the headband around his neck. "Naruto lets go spar a bit!" Deidara said with a grin.

"Sure."

The two went and sparred for a little bit before getting dinner and Naruto returned to the hotel. He was about to fall asleep when he a shimmer burst through his wall, "Naru-chan!" Hashirama shouted and tried to give him a flying tackle hug only to pass right through him.

Naruto looked at his guardian, "We are alone."

With a grin Naruto waved at Hashirama who was pouting, "Hello Hashi-chan."

"Tobirama says you were kidnapped, are you okay? They didn't hurt you did you? If they hurt you I'll destroy them" Hashirama asked coming over to him and looking at him checking for injuries.

"I'm fine! Actually, I kinda became welcomed here as an honorary Shinobi." Naruto stated rubbing the back of his head.

The room's atmosphere started to become heavier. "Really how did you do that?" Hashirama asked seemingly oblivious.

Naruto glanced to where his guardian had his arms crossed and was glaring at Hashirama.

"Well… Janken!" Naruto said with a grin.

"Hashirama." His guardian growled out.

The man slowly turned to him. "Madara…" his voice was shaky and his eyes were wide.

"Hmpf, this is the first time you see me since you would not leave that field of yours and you just ignore me?" The atmosphere became heavier with every word.

Hashirama bent down and started drawing circles in the ground, "I'm sorry."

"Baka." His guardian grumbled and walked over to Hashirama, he paused as he stood over him and then he crouched down in front of him, Hashirama looked at him with wide eyes. "It is not your fault for what happened." His guardian stated softly, then he grabbed Hashirama's hand and stood up bringing Hashirama up with him.

"You better not have gotten rusty, as soon as we get back to Konoha were going to spar." His guardian stated in lieu of actually saying that he missed the man.

Hashirama obviously still got the message though as for the first time since Naruto had met the man Hashirama beamed, his whole face lit up. "Aww Dara-chan missed me!" He said throwing an arm around his guardian.

Madara scowled at him, but Naruto could tell it was only for show. Grinning mischievously Naruto called out, "Aww how cute when are you two gonna kiss?" He teased.

His guardian growled at him, "You brat!" he said and went to whack Naruto's head. Not expecting it to hit Naruto didn't move but then was shocked when Madara's hand collided with his head in a gentle cuff.

The two shimmers and Naruto paused, "That is the second time that has happened…" His guardian said with a frown.

Naruto yawned. "I'm tired." he said lying down.

"Sleep Naru-chan." Hashirama said with a smile.

Naruto nodded and soon he fell asleep.

 **A/n: Heh interesting things happening huh? *Bounces around* I'm excited that this show is finnally getting on the road. I hope you readers are enjoying this as much as I am!**


	12. Chapter 12

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

He woke up the next morning and wrinkled his nose as he tried to smooth out his clothes Deidara had gotten him, he hoped he could return home soon. Exiting his room Hashirama and Madara followed him, both of them silent, but they seemed happy. He grabbed breakfast at the ramen stand Deidara had taken him to the other day.

Next thing he heard was a bunch of high pitched screeches, "Ugh oh." His guardian stated. Naruto felt something in him scream in horror, some instinct in him was screaming to run. Run far far away.

"Naruto run! Just run!" His guardian shouted.

Trusting him he took off. He heard footsteps racing behind him and shouts, "It's Naruto-kun!"

"Naruto-kun! Come play with me!" he glanced over his shoulder and saw a horde of girls his age and older by a few years.

"No me!"

He heard the sound of fighting but he didn't stop. Eventually he ran into the Tsuchikage building after having lost the crowd of girls.

"What… what was that?" Naruto asked aloud in a shaky voice.

"Fangirls." His guardian deadpanned.

"I see your fangirls finally found you." Onoki said with a chuckle.

"What- how?" Naruto asked unable to grasp that he had fangirls. He had seen that some of the girls in Konoha had taken to stalking Sasuke… but never as many as he had seen chasing him just now.

"Iwa takes its Janken very seriously." Onoki stated. "You came here just in time though, the results are in."

Naruto's eyes went wide, "You know who my parents are?"

Onoki nodded, "Indeed you are the son of Minato Namikaze, the yellow flash, and Kushina Uzumaki, the red hot habanero."

"They… they weren't traitors…" Naruto said slowly, his legs gave out from underneath him.

"You really didn't know?" Onoki asked.

Naruto shook his head, "All my life the civilians told me my parents were worthless traitorous drunks. That they abandoned me… Jiji said that they died the night of the Kyuubi's attack, but he never said more than that, everyone else told me other things though…"

"Jiji?" Onoki asked with a frown.

"Yeah Hokage-sama, he allows me to call him jiji." Naruto stated with a shrug.

Onoki nodded… then he cackled, "Feel free to call me oji-san, anyone good enough to beat me in Janken is worthy."

His guardian snorted and Hashirama facepalmed.

Naruto sweatdropped as the old man seemed highly amused for some reason. The bandage-shimmer sighed. "Okay," Pausing he tested out the name, "Onoki-oji-san."

Onoki smirked at him, "Now I've already sent the messenger bird to Konoha, enjoy your stay here in Iwa." The old man turned to head to his office and grumbled under his breath, "Now what the hell does Kumo want…"

Naruto shrugged and left going to look for Deidara. After another chase by the fangirls he found the boy on a training field messing with some clay. "Hi Deidara!"

"Hey Naruto!"

The two spared for a little bit, with Naruto receiving advice from Hashirama and his guardian. After the spar they went to go eat and Naruto had to run away from a group of fangirls yet again. "Just be glad your so young that your fangirls are not interested in dating you yet." His guardian commented dryly as they lost the fangirls, which for some reason was even harder than chunin.

"Oh hey, Naruto!" Asusukara called out he was standing with the other males of squad earth.

"Hey," Naruto replied, "What's up?"

"We were about to go to the hot spring, want to join us?"

"Sure." Naruto agreed.

The group went and started relaxing, "So what do you know about being an honorary shinobi of Iwa?" Asusukara asked.

"Nothing really."

"Okay, so being Honorary shinobi means that you are first and foremost a ninja of another village, or in your case since your loyal to Konoha you will be a ninja, the station automatically gives you the rank of Genin here in Iwa, though you should probably join some teams with D-ranks if you want to do any missions. But other than us saying your someone we trust enough to let in our village without keeping a guard on you at all times that's about it. You obviously won't be trusted with any really sensitive information… ah, the one other thing is if you ever decide to leave Konoha's ninja ranks you'll be welcomed here in Iwa, within reason of course, for example if you say kill someone for no reason then we might not be as welcoming, depends. Oh! About the Janken tournament, we try and keep outsiders as in the dark as possible, it's not really a secret, just something we like to do for fun." Asusukara explained.

Naruto nodded, "Cool, whats a D-rank?"

With that Asusukara explained the mission ranking system. After they were done with the hot springs since Naruto wanted to try a d-rank mission they agreed to team up with him. The mission they got was to clean up one of the parks from litter. Naruto did it without complaining as he was happy about technically being a ninja.

That night Naruto fell asleep exhausted though he did have some night clothes now which he put on and sealed his other clothes in a sealing scroll he bought with the money from the mission. He put the scroll in his pajama pockets, just in case a fangirl decided to rummage through his stuff.

When he woke up he felt his hands were bound as were his feet and he was even gagged, and he was being carried he was also blindfolded. Naruto inwardly sighed. How was he being kidnapped again?

"The brat is awake." A rough voice said.

"Good, ha that old fart can pay us far capturing this brat."

Naruto blinked completely confused. "Which old man are you talking about?" He tried to ask although it was muffled by the gag so it just came out as "Mmmphf mm mhf mmfh mmm?"

"Does the brat wish to speak?" The rough voice taunted.

Naruto nodded as best he could.

The gag was taken off. "Okay first of who are yall, why did you kidnap me, and what old man are you talking about?"

The rough voice responded, "Were Kumo nin. We kidnapped you because of your popularity in Iwa we figure we can get the old fart Onoki to pay us some money for you. So we know your name is Naruto and that somehow your popular in Iwa."

Naruto sighed, "My name Is Naruto Uzumaki, and I belong to Konoha, Iwa kidnapped me. And I'm popular cause I participated in their tournament and won."

"Uzumaki?" A different voice asked, "You wouldn't be the son of Kushina Uzumaki would you?"

"Well I guess I am, according to Iwa anyways." Naruto said with a shrug.

"What do you mean by that?" The rough voice asked.

"Well, I'm an orphan and I didn't know who my parents were until Iwa kidnapped me cause I look like the Namikaze. They did a blood test and found out that my parents were the Namikaze and Kushina. And frankly so long as y'all don't try and hurt me I could frankly care less about being kidnapped." Naruto deadpanned.

"Why not?"

"I'm considering this my vacation, honestly, much nicer than how I'm normally treated by Konoha."

"Wow. Well… I guess we can allow you a bit more freedom since your just a kid." The rough voice said.

He was released from his bounds to find he was being carried on the shoulder of a medium sized man with his hair in a ponytail. There was only one other person, another man who was broad shouldered and had three marks on each of his cheeks leading to his nose.

The rough voice man with the three marks was called Damu, and the smooth voice one who was carrying him was called Danberu. For the trip they didn't say much. Naruto after the first day of trying to get the men to talk gave up and decided to sleep.

He woke up tried to talk again, not getting anything, sighed and started complaining about being bored. Damu glared at him, "Your being kidnapped, it's not supposed to be boring!"

Naruto crossed his arms, "Iwa was much more entertaining kidnappers, they at least talked with me, aren't y'all supposed to try and get information out of me or something? Like I'm a kid don't you think if yall talked with me I would slip up and reveal something? Isn't that how things usually go down when the villains kidnap a kid?"

The two shimmers facepalmed.

The two dumb guys didn't respond and so Naruto just sighed and tried to fall asleep again. The trip passed by in Naruto mostly sleeping, trying to get the two guys to talk or eating the rations, they did allow him to change into his clothes though. Although Naruto left the headband off, since he wouldn't need it for awhile most likely. He ended up annoying the two enough that they gagged him and rebound him, though they left the blindfold off. Finally though they were at Kumo. The two brought him to a big central building and into an office were a big imposing man sat at the desk.

"What are you two idiots doing here… and why do you have a kid bound and gagged."

The two reported about him. The imposing guy sighed, "You two idiots leave."

"Yes Raikage-sama" The two said bowing and leaving.

Naruto had been carelessly dropped to the floor. Growling under his breath he glared at the two leaving guys. Slowly he tried to stand up but kept falling back down.

He pouted. A shadow fell over him. Pausing he looked up, and up… and up some more to look at the guy in the eyes. The man picked him up and sat him down on a chair, and then ungagged Naruto.

"Hello!" Naruto chirped in greeting.

The man raised an eyebrow.

It was silent for a moment before Naruto mentally shrugged, "Is all of Kumo not talkative or something? I tried to talk with those two guys but they didn't say much other than there names. Like seriously is it to hard to hold a conversation?" He rambled a little bit his nervousness getting the best of him.

"I don't know, it could just be that those two lack a brain between the two of them." The imposing person, who the two guys had called Raikage said.

"That is probably true, nice to meet you though! My name is Naruto Uzumaki, who are you?"

"I am A, the Raikage of Kumo." the man stated still staring at him. Behind him stood a similar looking figure.

"Nice to meet you, so ugh I'm hoping that my stay here can be as pleasant as the one in Iwa. Umm if that's possible." Naruto nervously said still craning his neck up. The Raikage was just so big!

"Why don't you tell me what happened before those two idiots kidnapped you."

And so Naruto did. "Very interesting." The man mused.

The door was thrown open, "Yo A, B here, with a message from Mr. eight, about his older Mr. Nine."

The Raikage sighed and glared. "What is it B?" He demanded sharply.

"Hosting , sure is great, he says half of nine, be mighty fine, the blonde haired boy, be such a joy." The other man, who the raikage called B rapped.

Pinching the bridge of his nose A asked, "Are you saying that he's the jinchuriki of the nine tails."

"You got that right, half o nine, be his to entwine."

A turned to him, "Your the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi?"

"A what? And didn't Namikaze kill the kyuubi?" Naruto said.

"You… you don't know?" A asked slowly looking like someone was slapping him with a fish. "Does Konoha not know how dangerous it is to leave a jinchuriki untrained!?" The man shouted slamming his hand down onto the desk breaking it and scattering paperwork everywhere.

Naruto yelped in shock. He shuddered as the man glared at him and cowered into himself.

"Brother." B said.

A turned to him. "What?"

"Calm down, he's only a child, and it's his villages fault that he doesn't know. Wild." B reprimanded with a very bad rap.

A calmed down and then B grinned and turned to him, "Sorry about big bro, he just worried, yo. The village he'll protect, so it doesn't get wrecked," The man once more rhymed.

Naruto frowned at him, "Why do you speak like that?" He was saving having his mental breakdown later.

"Because Imma be, the best B rapper." The main said grinning and fist pumping the air.

Naruto giggled.

"B! You are going to be the Uzumaki's guard until we can work out a deal with Konoha to have him returned. Stupid idiots." A grumbled. "And get him some basic training so he doesn't go on a rampage!"

"Understood!" B said.

"Follow me , we gonna go meet your big feline."

Naruto did and B sat him down and held his fist, "We bump fist, to give you a gist, of just what you miss."

Naruto nodded and fist bumped with B. he opened his eyes to find himself in a giant sewer, B stood next to him. "Come let's go find Nineo. Yo."

He shrugged and followed the man. They eventually reached a big room with bars. At first Naruto saw nothing and then he saw an eye open, idly he wondered what color it was. "Hello!" Naruto chirped.

A growl reverberated through the chamber, " **So you are my jailor?** " The eye looked over to B, " **And you brought the host of the eight tails as well.** " The eye looked back over to Naruto again, " **Why are you here Jailor.** "

Naruto shrugged, "I dunno, A-sama seemed displeased that I haven't received training and tasked B-sama here to train me, I didn't even know you were sealed into me until day. I'm waiting until I'm alone to have a breakdown after figuring out why all the villagers hate me and call me a demon."

"Such is the curse, of the ones who are asperse, because of what we hold, truth be told." B rapped once more.

The kyuubi growled, " **They most likely think that the seal of yours is weak like most other seals and that I can break out and rampage about when your emotions are unstable. Pah that stupid yondaime has made that impossible. Especially with my physical half ripped away.** "

Naruto looked to the side as the air shimmered and his guardian appeared. The kyuubi's eye snapped to it, " **YOU!** " it roared throwing itself against the bars glaring.

B looked at that shimmer his eyes going wide. "Is that…"

He blinked, "You can see him?"

His guardian snorted, "hn, it is most likely we are in your mindscape that they can see me."

"Ah."

His guardian stood behind him and crossed his arms. "Calm down Kyuubi less I make you calm down." His guardian commanded as the kyuubi kept trying to ram the bars.

" **Madara Uchiha! How dare you show up again, I thought that bastard senju killed you.** "

"I am dead, I am merely a spirit in the inbetween world."

The kyuubi growled, " **Than how can we see you?** "

His guardian looked at him, Naruto just shrugged. "Naruto has the ability to see us spirits. I have taken to watching over him."

B whistled then he paused, "That knowledge I just learned, wasn't mine to discern, was it?"

"No," And then his guardian reappeared in front of B staring him in his eyes with his sharingan activated.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow. Mildly concerned for B.

"I simply made it so he could not relay your ability to anyone else." His guardian stated before reappearing behind him.

B frowned at that. "Uncool, fool ya fool."

His guardian scoffed, "Just be glad that I left your rapping alone, I could easily make it so you do not rap ever again."

B's eyes widened. His guardian smirked, "In fact if you annoy me to much I will do that so stop that nonsense."

B pouted. Naruto shrugged, "I don't mind it." B beamed at him. "Still I wouldn't push your luck with my guardian, he can be grouchy."

"Hmpf." His guardian snorted crossing his arms.

The Kyuubi was merely watching right now.

"Fine fine…" B grumbled glaring at Madara.

Naruto grinned, "Hey you said that A-sama is your brother right, and if what I have observed is correct he gets annoyed with your rapping yeah?"

B nodded slowly.

"Well, your brother would be shocked if he is under the impression that I'm the one who gets you to stop rapping, even if it is the threat of my Guardian stopping you from rapping forever. Anyways it would be a funny prank on him because he's would want to know how 'I' do it yeah?"

The rapper nodded and grinned, "you got yourself a deal. When he," B pointed at Madara, "Is on the verge of making it so I never rap again, then you should say, 'B is being uncool.' Yeah. I'll stop rapping for a little bit. How's that sound?"

Naruto smirked and nodded. " **So, jailor, what are you going to do about me.** "

"Well…" Naruto tilted his head in thought before grinning, "Let's be friends!"

The kyuubi coughed, " **What?** "

"I want us to be friends."

" **Fine, we can be friends brat, just take the seal off**." The kyuubi said with a grin.

"Do you really think we'll allow that, removing the seal would set you free and kill Naruto." B spoke with a frown.

The Kyuubi just grinned, " **And I will be Naruto's friend for the last few seconds he's alive before going on to kill all of you pathetic humans.** "

Naruto pouted, "Does that mean you don't want to be friends." His bottom lip stuck out a bit.

" **Why would I want to be friends with a pathetic fleshbag like you.** "

"Your being mean." Naruto pouted.

His Guardian glared at the kyuubi. "Fine if your not willing to work with Naruto, I can always make you willing to work for Naruto."

The kyuubi growled at him, " **You blasted Uchiha! Always using those damn eyes of yours. Fine! I will work on being 'friends' with the brat.** "

Naruto frowned at his guardian, "That wasn't nice, I don't want the kyuubi to only be friends with me because he's scared of you."

The kyuubi eyed him.

His guardian just shrugged. "Fine, but if the Kyuubi ever does something to hurt you I will turn the overgrown fox into your obedient pet." He said. Naruto sweatdropped at his guardian's way of being an overprotective family member.

"What does being a jinchuuriki mean exactly anyways, besides for holding a biju, you guys never explained."

B took a bit of time to explain, saying that Naruto should be able to access the kyuubi's chakra, but if he uses to much of it he could lose control. Plus a lot more information. He said Naruto was a bit too young to go through the full training to become a proper jinchuriki, but for now he could get used to being able to talk with the kyuubi.

"Speaking of which, I'm surprised you never spoke with Naruto before."

" **I can not speak with Naruto unless he is in the mindscape because of the seal,** " The kyuubi said. It looked at Naruto, " **The brat shouldn't use my chakra, because I am missing my physical half if he tries to use my chakra it will eat away at his cells making it so his lifespan is shortened.** "

"Is there anyway to fix that?" B asked.

The kyuubi looked at him, " **I suppose if I had some way to get my physical half, or I suppose if my brothers decided to lend me enough physical chakra so that I can recreate my physical half.** "

The mindscape suddenly changed and shifted and Naruto found himself standing still in the sewer but half of it changed to reveal another tailed beast. " **Which is unable to happen, as it would take two of us working together in order for you to reform your physical half.** "

The kyuubi growled, " **I was wondering when you were going to make your appearance Hachibi.** "

The Eight tailed beast didn't say anything instead choosing to look at Naruto, " **So you are Kurama's new container.** "

The kyuubi roared, " **How dare you Gyuki!** " The kyuubi threw itself against the bars.

Naruto ignored it, "What do you mean Kurama?"

Hachibi smirked, " **Kurama is his name, mine is Gyuki, nice to meet you.** "

"It's nice to meet you to!" Naruto said grinning.

" **B, it is getting late the boy will need to sleep, and we have to go chat with my sister.** " Gyuki said.

B nodded and he disappeared. Gyuki went away at the same time. Naruto turned to Kurama, "Goodbye Kurama-san!"

The giant fox merely turned away.

Naruto shrugged as he watched the mindscape fade away. "Follow me, the awesome B, to your room we go, with the flow."

His guardian reappeared and scowled at B.

He just grinned and followed B. He was signed into a basic room and he quickly fell asleep, it had been an interesting and busy day.

 **A/n: Okay I know, what are the odds of someone being kidnapped twice? Well lets just say that Dumb and Dumber (The Names of the two kumo ninja he kidnapped in english) are as smart as there names implys, they have goot intentions, which is to bring more money and a political adavantage to Kumo, but they didn't really think there whole plan through. They were supposed to be guarding the kumo ambassador who was there to work an alliance with Iwa, lets just say that the peace treaty didn't happen because of those two idiots. Anyways I hope you enjoy, and soon things will be getting back to normal!**


	13. Chapter 13

The next day B woke him up and after Naruto changed they made there way to a training field where a girl stood with long hair in a ponytail, she had a scowl on her face. "I do not want to do this." She stated.

B rolled his eyes at her, "Come on Ms. Two, its time to help out Mr. Nine, so that this lad so fine, can do his job, yo."

She scoffed, "Whatever lets get this over with, I'm only doing this case Matatabi says we should." They all fist pumped and Naruto found himself in his mindscape with Kurama behind him. B stood in front of Gyuki, and the girl stood in front of the two tailed cat, who Naruto believed was Matatabi.

" **Let's get this over with** " Kurama grumbled with a huff.

" **Yes let us, I can't stand the stench of Uchiha that hangs around the boy.** " Matatabi said.

" **Damn Uchiha.** " Kurama growled out in agreement.

" **Jailor. You are going to have to be the conduit for the chakra. Me and you will do that fist bump thing and then you will also fist bump Matatabi, when I say switch you fill fist bump with Gyuki. Understand brat?** "

Naruto nodded. Kurama held his paw out managing to get it through the bars. Naruto fist bumped him and then Matatabi helf her paw out. He fist bumped that and then felt chakra pouring over him through him and into Kurama.

Twenty minutes pass before Kurama calls out for the switch. Naruto fist bumped Gyuki. The chakra flow resumed. "Im outta here." the girl stated looking on in disgust. She left.

Matatabi stayed a few seconds longer, " **I am sorry for her actions.** " Before she to left.

An hour and twenty minutes passed with the chakra passing from Gyuki to Kurama. " **Alright I'm done.** " Gyuki said pulling away.

Naruto turned to Kurama who pulled his paw back away. The fox ginned and stretched, " **This is much better, loathe as I am to say this I owe you and matatabi one.** "

" **I know of that seal that is on you, make sure to help your host, lest he dies and drag you with him, I would hate to lose you to the death god,** " Gyuki said. " **That is all I request.** "

Kurama nodded.

" **Let us leave B. We will keep watch incase Naruto loses control.** " The duo left.

" **Alright brat, I'm going to give you a small amount of chakra, not even a tails worth to see how you handle it. Got it.** "

"Got it!"

A small tendril of something came out from the cage towards Naruto. It entered him and he felt powerful. He opened his eyes to the real world.

"You with us Naruto?" B asked.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah."

"Cool, man your eyes look the same as Kurama's right now."

"What do you mean?"

B frowned, "What do you mean what do I mean?"

Naruto huffed, "I'm colorblind, so the only thing I know about Kurama's eyes is they are slitted."

"There a blood red… err I guess that doesn't really help much if your colorblind."

"It does, I used to be able to see colors, but a little over a year ago… there was an accident. Me not being able to see colors is the result. I kinda remember what colors look like… but there fading away as the time passes." Naruto growled out remembering the event his claws dug into the ground.

"Ah.. Okay now this is probably enough for now, I would say in another year or so then try working on controlling one-tails worth of power even if you master this little bit before then. Because your so young, it will be harder for your body to process the Biju's chakra. Now continue practicing with that amount of chakra though until you can stay completely calm and make rational decisions."

"Understood B-sensei!"

The man smiled, "Okay release Kurama's chakra now."

Naruto nodded, closed his eyes, and feeling for the Kyuubi's chakra he pushed it away from his own system releasing it.

He opened his eyes to the sewer, " **Good job brat, for now I will limit the amount of chakra to that unless you are in a life threatening situation. Or until you're ready for the one-tail cloak** "

"Okay. Sounds good Kurama-san."

Focusing he willed himself back into full consciousness.

"Say, B-sensei?"

"Hm?"

"I heard that you guys have a tournament. I was wondering about that."

"Well we hold a speed tournament every half a year, though we have races every week or so. My brother holds the title of first place. But for the races you can use whatever you want to win, bloodlines, chakra, even jutsu's are allowed. Well except for the Hiraishin, or anything else that teleports you. The next race is in two days, it's not the junior cup which is usually what someone your age would participate in, but its the genin cup if you want to try your luck."

"Sure it sounds fun!" Naruto said with a grin.

"Okay let's go get some food and then we'll continue practicing calling forth your Biju's chakra and releasing it at a moments notice."

"Do yall have ramen?"

B laughed and nodded. They went to eat ramen with some people staring in shock at B chatting away normally with Naruto. "Man if I knew that I could shock people this much…." B said with a chuckle.

"Yeah but if you talk normally two often then it won't shock them."

"True." B said smirking in amusement. After finishing the ramen they went back to training. Hours passed and then they ate dinner before B led him to his room again.

The next day B came to get him again and they continued training. "Alright now that you got a basic handle on Kurama's chakra I want you to use it and were going to spar."

Naruto nodded and mentally asked Kurama for the chakra. He felt himself strengthen. "Good. Now lets spar!" The man declared.

He leapt at the man using the basic academy stance he knew, though it did have a few kata's mixed in from his guardian. An hour later Naruto collapsed in exhaustion. Even with Kurama's chakra running through him. He released the chakra.

"Not bad. Actually I'm surprised you knew a taijutsu stance, from what I heard Konoha doesn't teach taijutsu until the kid is 9, unless you're one of those special genius kids. But from what you mentioned of your village than they wouldn't allow you."

Naruto gave a shrug. "You met the reason I know a stance." Naruto said, and he wasn't even lying, if it wasn't for being able to see shimmers than he wouldn't have been taught by the Anbu the academy basic.

"Ah." B said with a nod. The day passed with B suggesting things to help Naruto improve, and giving him some tips so that he could handle Kurama's chakra better. Saying that in the future Naruto would have to go through the waterfall to go past three tails, but he shouldn't do that until he was at least thirteen years old.

They ate and then Naruto went to bed. He woke up to B grinning excitedly, "Alright let's get you signed up for the genin cup."

They went and Naruto did a few stretches getting warmed up. People whispered and pointed at him. Other contestes came and lined up. Naruto tuned out there whisperings, he was the fastest non genin in Konoha to his knowledge, he had escaped Chunin multiple times before he could do this.

"There are three races, one is a flat 100 meter sprint in a straight line, the second is 100 laps on the track, and the third is an obstacle course. The winners of the three will then have an endurance race in which they continue laps until someone collapses. The exception is if only one person won all three laps."

They were lined up and then the whistle blew and they were off Naruto used kurama's chakra for a boost, but much to his surprise he was in third place. Next was the 100 laps. Naruto ran and after a hundred laps he was almost tied for first, but he came in 2nd only by a split second. Next was the obstacle race. Running through the obstacles Naruto scoffed at how easy it was and came out in first by a solid lead of twenty seconds.

The three of them a girl a guy and then him were allowed a small break for food. Naruto smirked, "This next challenge isin't a race." Hashirama stated.

Twitching his left arm he asked, 'What?'

"This race is made for endurance, how long you can run. If you put all of your energy into it at the start you'll wear yourself out faster." Hashirama stated.

Naruto gave a small nod. After there lunch break the three of them stood at the line, "And go!" the three of them were off, Naruto steadily falling behind though as he set a lighter pace. The other two soon lapped him. A couple hours later the girl collapsed. Naruto and the boy kept running the boy occasionally lapping him as he still went at a fast pace, though it was heavily reduced from what he had started out with. Another hour and the boy collapsed. Naruto had won.

B came up to him and they fist bumped. A also came up to him, "Quite an impressive win Uzumaki. What made you think about going slow during the final race?"

"Well yall said it was endurance run, meaning how long you could go at it, not how fast we could. So by going at a slower pace I was able to keep my stamina up instead of wearing myself out."

"Smart plan but let's say your being pursed, how would you escape from them?"

"Well it depends, but I would use the terrain to my advantage where possible, and if it was where that didn't stop them I would try and put some distance between us and again depending on the situation, set up a trap, signal for help, or see if I can hide or otherwise trick my opponents."

A nodded "You got some pretty good thoughts, I think you'll make a decent ninja in the future."

Naruto smiled. "Some Konoha ninja should be here in the next day or two to get you."

"B! How is Naruto's jinchuriki training progressing. Is he stable?" A asked.

B gave a nod, "Yeah boy, be mighty fine yo."

"Good. Continue watching over Naruto until those slowpokes get here."

Naruto blinked, "Slowpokes?"

"Yeah, A here can get to Konoha in two days easily. One day if he needs to be there quick, so anybody who takes longer than that are slow to him, even most of our own ninja." B explained.

A nodded at that before he left.

"Let's go get you some celebratory ramen."

"Yay!" Naruto shouted.

They ate ramen and then they resumed training for the last hour or so before it was time for Naruto to get to bed. The next day he woke up and continued training with B until they were summed to the Raikage's office.

Once there Naruto beamed at seeing that the third had come to get him personally. "Jiji!" Naruto said going to hug him.

The hokage smiled and patted his hair. "I hope your doing okay Naruto-kun."

"Yeah! This has been an awesome vacation!" He said grinning.

The hokage raised an eyebrow. "Seems like you had quite an adventure, you'll have to tell me all about it once were back in Konoha."

Naruto nodded.

"So this old man, be konoha's man, the mighty leader three, for the people of the tree." B rapped once more.

"Yep!" Naruto said with a nod.

"So what will it take to get Naruto back."

A looked thoughtful, "Since we had no intention of kidnapping a Konoha citizen… only 250,000 ryo."

The third narrowed his eyes, "that is quite the high price for a mere child."

"Oh cut the bullshit," A said with a scoff, "Not only is Uzumaki there the son of the yellow flash and the red hot habanero, he is also the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi. You should be thankful I'm even willing to give him back." A said with a growl.

Sarutobi's eyes widened and he glanced at Naruto. "Yeah… we got a lot to talk about." Naruto commented drly crossing his arms.

"Mr. nine, is quite the find." B rhymed badly.

His guardian sighed, "Can you shut that fool up, his terrible rapping is giving me a headache?"

Naruto shrugged and turned to the holder of the gyuki, "B is being uncool."

The man gave a pout but nodded, "Fine fine."

The third pulled out a scroll and tossed over the money. "They're in stacks of 50,000."

A smirked, "Pleasure doing business with you. Uzumaki!"

"Yes A-sama?" He asked with a sweatdrop as the imposing man directed his full attention to him.

"You are to return when your thirteen to further your jinchuuriki training, and I expect you to get even faster. I want to be challenged like your father challenged me."

Naruto gave a nod. The hokage raise an eyebrow, "Let's go Naruto. Time to return home."

The boy beamed as one of the Hokage's guards picked him up and they left.

 **A/N: Alright there on there way back to Konoha! I hope you enjoyed reading this, because I am enjoying writing this!**


	14. Chapter 14

Four days later they were back in Konoha bright and early. They went to the Hokage's office where the old man sat down, Tobirama stood behind the third.

Hashirama and his guardian stood behind him. "It is good to see that appear to be unharmed." Tobirama stated.

"It was fun!" Naruto said with a grin.

His guardian rolled his eyes.

"Being kidnapped is generally not supposed to be fun." Jiji scolded lightly.

Naruto gave a shrug then he paused, "So jiji," Naruto started straightening and looking at his grandfather like person. The old man looked at him, "When where you going to tell me about my parents, or that the villagers hate me because of what Namikaze sealed into me."

The old man sighed and lighted his pipe, "I was going to tell you about the Kyuubi after you became a genin. As for your parents that was going to happen after you became a jounin or you were 18. As you should know Minato and Kushina both had enemies in Iwa and Kumo." The old man said puffing a bit of smoke out, "Why do you call your father Namikaze?"

Naruto shrugged, "That's how everyone addresses him in Iwa, well that or the bastard/blasted Namikaze, or damn Namikaze. And it feels weird to call him my father."

"I'm surprised that Iwa didn't kill you even for suspecting you were Minato's son." Sarutobi murmured.

"Why would they? I'm only six, and besides I won the tournament they held! I beat Onoki-oji-san!"

Naruto watched amused as the hokage spluttered and coughed on his pipe. He was pretty sure this was why the old man wanted him to call him oji-san. And it was a good small bit of revenge on the old man for keeping the secret from him. "Speaking of Iwa's tournament, I also was able to participate in one of the smaller ones in Kumo, I came in first there as well, even if it was just against the genins. Next time I hope I can compete against the chunins! Or even the Jounins. Say what's Konoha's tournament?"

"We don't have any tournament."

Naruto shook his head, "As soon as I am Hokage I'm making a tournament for us, all the other villages have one yet we don't." Naruto sniffed as he turned his head away.

"Oh and what would you make our tournament be?"

"I don't know I don't want to copy Iwa or Kumo's… and I don't know what Kiri and Suna has. Hmm. I'll have to think about it, the tournament would have to be something everyone enjoys..." He mused.

"Did anything else interesting happen?"

"Does me becoming an honorary shinobi count?"

"Yes Naruto that would count." The third stated flatly rubbing his nose to ward of a headache.

"I am an honorary shinobi of Iwa." Naruto beamed.

"So, not only does Iwa not hate you for being Minato's son… they actually like you enough to make you an honorary shinobi?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep! Say jiji… do you know what the red alert book is?"

The third hokage twitched.

"That would be a yes." His guardian deadpanned.

"Naruto," Tobirama stated. "Please give a full debriefing."

"Of course." Naruto agreed. Then he gave a full report of what happened. Leaving out just what the two tournaments were about.

"Why didn't you do that to start with Naruto?" The third asked after Naruto was done.

"You didn't ask for a full debriefing, you asked specific questions which I answered."

"Who taught you how to give a full debriefing, I didn't think you were that far in the Anbu training." His jiji asked.

"Tobirama-sensei taught me."

"Very well, anyways since both Iwa and Kumo know of your parentage, it's not much use to keep it secret, I'll make the announcement to the village tomorrow."

"No." Naruto said surprising everyone, "Please leave my parent's a secret jiji, I want everyone to acknowledge me for what I have done, not what my parents have done."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Very well then. You of course can choose to tell someone the secret of the kyuubi or your parents if you so choose." the third said.

"Hey… speaking of my parent's why aren't they around as shimmers?"

"Well, since your father used a forbidden jutsu in order to seal the kyuubi into you, the price was his soul."

"And my mother?"

"I don't know."

"I have an Idea," Hashirama stated. "I watched when Mito passed away, she was the first jinchuriki of the nine-tails. She should have appeared here in the inbetween, yet she didn't. I can only hope that her soul was forced to pass on to the next world, an not that the kyuubi completely destroyed her soul on her passing." Hashirama stated sadly. "Since your mother was the jinchuuriki before your than it could be she wasn't allowed to become a spirit and was forced to move directly on."

"I see." Naruto stated before relaying what was said to the hokage.

He gave a small nod and then after a moment of silence he smiled and said. "Since you missed almost a month's of schooling you have quite a bit to catch up on. And your also behind on your training from the commander."

Naruto sweatdropped. Slowly turning around he saw the commander standing behind him. "As soon as the academy is over we will be resuming your training." He said then disappeared.

"Now I believe your running late to the academy. What will you tell the instructor about your absence?"

"That I was on vacation." Naruto said with a shrug, "I don't want people to wonder why I was kidnapped."

The hokage just raised an eyebrow, "Very well than, you better get to the academy before you're more than three hours late."

"Okay!" Naruto said and ran out he pushed chakra into his feet and took off down the familiar streets of Konoha making it to the academy after only a couple minutes. Though he was still a few hours late.

Naruto slid into his seat next to Shino, "Are you okay?" The boy asked.

"Yep! It was pretty much just a vacation, I had tons of fun."

Shino remained silent, Naruto knew the boy was frowning despite being unable to see it. "I'll tell you more later."

The boy nodded. At recess Naruto told Shino more about what happened, Leaving out his parent, the kyuubi and what the tournament was about. It wasn't that he didn't trust shino, it was just that he didn't want Shino to hate him for holding the Kyuubi, or to decide to remain his friend because of who his parents were.

The day ended and Naruto stayed behind as the Academy quickly became deserted, making sure he was alone by asking his shimmers he changed into his Anbu clothes finishing right before the commander appeared. "Lets go Nomani"

And so Naruto resumed his speed training, fighting against the commander. Slowly the year crawled by. His training continued, Tobirama finished him on the two-step and now Naruto was working on the three-step, his hand speed signs would increase with practice, and chakra.

His Anbu training for being able to process things faster was going well as he was now facing off against the commander who was going at high chunin speeds.

And Madara and Hashirama took to training him their basic taijutsu styles to use while he would not be able to fully use there styles without the Sharingan or the Mokuton, it was still a good basics for aggressive and defensive styles. Naruto in the academy wasn't paying much attention, though he did just enough to pass. He didn't care for the academy, it was just so boring!

Four months after his return it was his birthday which was celebrated with the shimmers the hokage and the four anbu who knew his secret though they could only stay for a couple minutes, as well as Shino, though he came in after the Anbu.

It was the best birthday he had ever.

Sarutobi did ask about the books later after Shino had left and if Naruto was learning from them Naruto nodded, he had finished the history book and the booklet on chakra He had glanced at the seal book and the diary but he had just gotten a headache and so put those two off for another time, he was currently reading the trap book and learning the traps. But well the book had been written by Madara… so generally his guardian just told him about the traps.

"How are the books I gave you for christmas last year?"

"Good I finished the chakra book and the history book. I'm working on learning traps now."

"That's good, Madara despite being the first Nuke-nin was a genius at traps."

His guardian smirked, "I am a genius at everything, not just traps."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "And you wonder why people think you have a stick up your ass." he commented dryly.

"I am not arrogant, I just know that I am above everyone else."

Tobirama scoffed, "And this was why the village thought you were a warmonger."

His guardian growled at Tobirama. The two started fighting. Hashirama signed, "Such children." he muttered to Naruto.

He giggled.

The third watched and then asked, "Naruto. Do you know who your guardian is?"

"Yeah, though I still call him Guardian. That's what he is to me, though Hashirama is like a guardian as well with his hovering." Naruto glanced to where Hashirama was sitting next to him watching Madara and Tobirama fight.

"Who is your guardian?"

"Madara." Naruto replied flippantly.

His jiji twitched. "Oi, you two better not fight in my apartment again!" He shouted at the two. They didn't hear him. "Hashirama can you trap them with you Mokuton?"

The man grinned at him and clapped his hands. Wood sprung up from the floor and trapped the two. Naruto walked over to the two and crossed his arms, "What have I told you about fighting in my apartment?"

"Not to, but why not it's not like our attacks damage anything." Tobirama stated his face completely flat.

"I told you its cause whenever one of your jutsus's hit me it feels weird."

"Fine fine we will take our fight outside." Madara grumbled glaring at Tobirama.

Hashirama released them and the two shimmers went to go fight. "Your guardian is Madara Uchiha?" The third asked.

"Yeah, and don't give me any of that crap about being suspicious of him, Tobirama has already stated that I should be wary of him, that was at first though, I guess the two talked or something, cause now they only bicker back and forth like friendly rivals instead of enemies, besides Hashi-chan here is keeping an eye on me."

The third thought over this before nodding. "Very well than," He remained silent for a moment before asking. "Why do you call the first Hashi-chan?"

"Because Naru-chan loves me!" Hashirama said draping his arms around Naruto. Speaking of that Naruto could now feel the ghosts about 25% of the time. If the ghosts focused on making contact or if he focused on contacting the ghost it would happen, but if neither were concentrating than it was a 25% chance of it happening.

Naruto just huffed, but he leaned into the touch. "Well at first it happened when the Commander showed up, and my guardian mentioned how much he disliked Hashirama calling him Dara-chan, so I decided to call him Hashi-chan, he doesn't mind being called that."

"Dara-chan secretly likes me calling him such."

"I sincerely doubt that, everytime you call him that he tries to fry you."

Hashirama pouted.

"I don't think I will ever get used to you having conversations that I can only hear half of." THe third stated.

"It's hard for me because sometimes the shimmers like to talk over the living so I can hear a mess of stuff, like the academy, sometimes a shimmer will come in and start teaching something to me completely different than what the teacher is teaching, usually saying that even though you revised the academy that the teachers are dumb or that the information is useless to me since I'm going to be a ninja."

Sarutobi nodded. "Well happy birthday Naruto-kun." He said smiling as he left. Naruto nodded and looked at the gifts he had been given, from Shino it was actually a small colony of bugs that he could take care of in his apartment so long as he fed them his chakra.

From the Anbu he received a scroll that had five basic jutsu's, one from each element. And The hokage gave him a basic weight set for his training. Yes it was a wonderful birthday indeed.

Another couple months of training and he had learned the defensive jutsu of water wall with Tobirama's help, he was now facing off at the commander at high genin speed, because of the weights. It was the beginning of December and Naruto was enjoying the vacation month from the academy. He was currently eating his breakfast when a shimmer walked through the wall, what was surprising was that this wasn't tobirama, instead it was the Bandage-shimmer from Iwa.

"Hello!" Naruto greeted with a wave, "What are you doing here Bandage-shimmer?"

The man blinked at him, "Bandage-shimmer?" he repeated.

"Yeah, I don't know your name so I named you." Naruto replied flippantly waving his hand.

Hashirama and Madara glanced at him but soon went back to playing Janken.

"I see, my name is Mu, and I was the Nidaime Tsuchikage."

"Nice to meet you then Mu-shimmer. So what brings you to Konoha?" Naruto asked.

"I doubt that my successor informed you of the fact that to keep your title as the Janken King you need to take part in the yearly formal tournament, and as it is very interesting to see him lose I choose to inform you myself."

Naruto blinked, "He is basically saying that he finds it amusing that the old man losses to a brat like you." His guardian explained.

"What's different about this tournament from the rest?"

"Well it's a formal tournament meaning you should have formal wear on, and it is longer the rules a bit different, unlike the tournament you participated in you have to fight against everyone again, the top ten then fight off against each other to determine the order. This happens every year to give others a fair chance to the top ten. Once your a top ten so long as no one wants to challenge you then you really don't even have to show up. Since Onoki knows your not from Iwa he hasn't challenged you, he was probably also planning to retake his position of number one by not informing you." Mu said.

"I see, when is the tournament?"

"In five days, you will have to leave today to get there in time and have some time to rest."

Naruto sent the bandaged shimmer a flat look, "Cutting the warning a bit close yeah?"

The man shrugged.

"To jiji!" Naruto shouted he quickly finished his breakfast.

Naruto ran out of his apartment towards the Hokages tower and he burst into the room, "Yo jiji!" He called.

He paused as he saw that someone else was in the room, "Sorry!" Naruto apologize.

"It's fine Naruto-kun, Fugaku-dono and I were finishing up," He said with a kind smile. "What did you need?"

"I need to go to Iwa. I was informed that to keep my number one spot I need to go to the formal tournament."

"I see… you will need a guard to go with you." The third just said with a sigh.

Naruto noticed that the man with shoulder length hair that cropped his face was still standing there, Fuga something.

"I don't have much time, I have to leave today to make it in time, since its a four day journey to get there. That lets me sleep and wake up the next day for the tournament, which is an all day event. So I would be gone nine to ten days I might want to spend an extra day so I can chat with Deidara-kun and Kurotsuchi-chan"

The hokage frowned, "I see, unfortunately I don't have anyone of qualifications available at the moment."

"I can go with the boy hokage-sama." the man offered. Naruto beamed at him.

The third raised an eyebrow. "May I inquire as to why you wish to go with him? I thought that clan matters were keeping you busy?"

"They are, and as such I could use a break from the stress, my wife can handle the matters for the duration of how long I'll be gone if you allow me to go."

"I see, would you mind if I spoke with Naruto-kun alone for a moment."

"Not at all Hokage-sama." The man said with a small bow as he left.

"Naruto, while I want to trust Fugaku-dono, there is a chance he may try and use this opportunity to grab control of the Kyuubi," The third warned. "I will allow him to go with you, but only if your guardian can counter the effects of another's sharingan. You mentioned that he can use it on you."

Naruto looked at Madara who smirked, "It will be no problem."

Relaying that to the Hokage the man gave a nod and the door opened by itself allowing Fugaku back in. "Naruto has agreed to you guarding him for this trip," Sarutobi puffed out a bit of smoke from his pip, "Seeing as Naruto has no formal clothes would you mind taking him to get something?" The hokage pulled out something from his drawers and tossed it to Fugaku, "That should cover the cost. And Fugaku-dono, Naruto will most likely do things that surprise you. I would give you a warning… but an old man like me need some form of amusement." the childish 'so nah' went unsaid.

Fugaku raised an eyebrow before he bowed and they left. "Do you have a preference for your clothes?" Fugaku asked him after they reached the market district. Naruto noticed that even more people than usual were sending wary glances at him

"I like grey, mostly because it's the only color I see, but I want the leaf symbol on the back in red and the Uzumaki swirl on the shoulder if it can be done today."

The Uchiha clan head raised an eyebrow a tiny bit, but no other expression crossed his face. They went to a shop where Naruto was quickly outfitted with a formal Kimono. Ninja tailors had to be fast to meet the demands of shinobi afterall. It did allow Fugaku enough time to go alert his family of where he was going.

Packing the new clothes neatly into one of his sealing scrolls he put it back into his pocket before he started walking out, Hashirama and Madara following, as Mu walked slightly in front. "Let's get going _Janken King_ I want to see Onoki's face when he realizes that you have showed up."

The small group walked out, "Let's go Fugaku-sama! We have four days to get there!" Naruto called out as he broke into a decent paced run.

The man easily caught up with him, "Even at this pace we won't arrive in time."

"What pace do we need to go at?"

"High Chunin speeds will do," The man told him with a glance.

Naruto gave a nod, "I can run at that speed for a good few hours." Without using the kyuubi's chakra that was, and with his weights still on.

The man glanced at him and they increased their speed. "I am surprised you can run as fast as you can Uzumaki-san."

"Please call me Naruto, and speed is an important factor for a ninja, I have heard rumours that A-sama is the fastest ninja, and that he can make it to Konoha from kumo in two days. I would like to be that fast, maybe even surpass him." Partially true. A had challenged him to get faster after all.

"I see." The man stated.

The next few hours passed in silence as the two ran towards Iwa. Finally Naruto had to slow down as his chakra depleted from keeping that fast pace. Fugaku slowed down as well, "If we run at average gennin speed for an hour my chakra will replenish enough for another few hours of running at high chunin." Naruto explained.

"That will put us behind schedule."

Naruto frowned wondering how they could make it in time, the four days was usually an estimate for jounin at low speed. Which was why chunin high could make it in the same time if only a couple hours later.

"If you are okay with it I can carry you and travel at average jonin speed for a bit."

Naruto nodded and he clambered onto Fugaku's back. Then they were off in a blur. Naruto beamed happily as the man took to the trees. He really did like the view from up here. His guardian snickered at him. Naruto stuck his tongue out at the shimmer.

An hour later Fugaku set him down and the two took off at high chunin speeds again. This pattern continue until it was night time and Naruto fell fast asleep. Fugaku woke him up a five hours later saying they needed to move again.

And so the journey went with them only completely stopping for sleep they ate rations on the move. They actually made pretty good time as on the fourth day they arrived a few hours before nightfall. As they walked up towards the gate Naruto dug through his scroll and pulled out his headband and placed it around his neck.

Fugaku raised both eyebrows, "You are an honorary shinobi of Iwa?"

"Yep!" Naruto said.

"I see, so that must be why Hokage-sama only felt the need to place one guard with you."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

The two arrived at the gate. Naruto was immediately waved through though they had to go through paperwork with Fugaku. Naruto waited amused, "Now to go greet the old man." Naruto said out loud Fugaku following him.

Naruto looked for the familiar building and made his way. Entering he saw Deidara, "Deidara-kun!" He called out.

"Naruto-kun! Ha! I knew you would show up." The older boy said ruffling his hair.

"Of course I have to keep my position."

"Lets go greet the old man then."

The two boys grinned and ran to the Tsuchikage's room bursting in, Fugaku followed his eyes widened as soon as he saw what room they had burst into, "Onoki-oji-san!" Naruto called out.

The old man looked up and cursed under his breath. "How could you not tell me that I needed to come here for the formal tournament to keep my place as number one?"

"Bah! No matter that your here I'll beat you this time brat!"

"Ha! You can try old man!" Naruto said with a smirk.

"Who's the grouchy looking Konoha ninja behind you?" Onoki asked smirking as Fugaku frowned.

"That's my guard Fugaku, Jiji assigned him." Naruto replied dismissively.

Onoki snorted, "Wicked eye Fugaku? I thought you were retired as clan head?"

"I am," Fugaku replied in a monotone voice.

"Bah! You Uchiha always so dull, still better that that Hyuuga clan." Onoki snorted.

"I take offense to that," Madara deadpanned crossing his arms. "I am not dull."

"Well since you're here brat you can stay in the hotel same as your last visit. I'm sure the girls will be pleased to hear that you could show up."

Naruto sweatdropped and groaned, "Not the fangirls! I forgot about them. I have heard many horrible stories about what Fangirls will do if they can catch me."

Fugaku sighed deeply.

"Ha! Serves you right brat! Now shoo!" Onoki said waving him away.

"See ya tomorrow Okoki-oji-san!" Naruto said.

And seeing Deidara jump out the window after shouting, "Race you to the hotel!" He jumped out after the older boy quickly catching up with him with a smirk.

The two boys arrived at the hotel at the same time Fugaku arriving a second after them. "So how long you plan on staying?"

"So long as Fugaku-sama here doesn't mind I'll stay an extra day after the tournament."

"It is fine." Fugaku agreed.

"Cool, then we can spar the day after the tournament!" Deidara said.

"Yeah!"

After checking into the hotel Naruto went with Deidara to eat some Bakudan. "I tried some of this in Konoha, got to admit that it's a lot better here, though the ramen and inarizushi are better in Konoha. Actually I was wondering, what rank are you?"

Deidara grinned as they started walking back to the hotel, "I was actually just promoted to chunin!"

"Cool."

"Hey look, isin't that Naruto-kun" Naruto heard a whisper.

"Yeah it looks like it."

Naruto started walking a little bit faster.

"Naruto-kun!" One of the girls shouted.

"Where?" a multitude of voices called out.

"There lets get him to play with us!" Naruto started running.

"I ain't sharing Naruto-kun with you hags!" One of the girls shouted. A horde of footsteps ran after him.

"Goodluck!" Deidara laughed at him as he split off.

"Traitor!" Naruto shouted as he speed up a bit faster.

Deidara's retreating laughter was his only answer.

Eventually he lost the fangirls and made his way to the hotel. "You have fangirls." Fugaku stated flatly.

"Yeah, unlike in Konoha i'm actually liked here."

"I admit I'm surprised they like you despite your similarity to your father." Fugaku stated before he realized what he said and shut his mouth.

"Oh you know my parents?" Naruto asked shrugging. "Yeah, my thought was if Iwa can like me despite who my father is then I can get Konoha to like me despite the burden he gave me."

"You know?"

"Yeah," Naruto replied as he started changing his clothes. He kicked back on his bed before stating, "Do you know when I was gone for about a month a while back?"

Fugaku nodded, "Well Iwa actually kidnapped me then, because of who I resembled, they did a blood test and so I learned who my parents were, during that time I participated in a semi casual tournament and beat the old man gaining the respect of Iwa and fangirls. Anyways after that Kumo kidnapped me and I met one who carries one less than mine, he was able to tell what I was and so I received a bit of training in how to use Kurama's chakra. I also participated in one of there weekly mini tournaments."

"Kurama?"

"His name."

"I see. Are you an honorary shinobi in Kumo as well?" Fugaku asked with a frown

"Nah."'

"Anything else I should know?"

"Not off the top of my head." Naruto stated with a shrug, "Anyways since I already know who my parents were Jiji offered to tell the village, but I said no cause I want to earn the respect of Konoha, despite the burden I carry."

"I understand, it is getting late."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah goodnight Fugaku-sama."

"Goodnight Naruto-san."

With that he fell asleep.

 **A/n: So much** **excitement** **! WOOOO! I'm really enjoying this story, I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I am! Anyways, the first part of this story is done. Part one includes 30 chapters and is Naruto before he graduates from the academy, I'm now writing Part two which is Naruto after graduation and all that shenanigans. I will follow the anime mostly, I may include a few of the filler episodes they have, just because I either have a plan for the** **episode** **, or I just really like the episode. But that's in the future who knows what I might actually do. Have a good day! See ya** **tomorrow** **!**


	15. Chapter 15

He woke up the next day, got dressed in his formal clothes. With his guardian directing him he fixed his hair to make it look more tame than it normally did, it had grown longer down to the medium of his back, Naruto refused all of Hashirama's teasing that he was growing it out to look like Madara's. Even if it was true.

Exiting he found Fugaku leaning against the wall opposite of his door. The man raised an eye looking over him, "You clean up nice when your not wearing those rags you normally call clothes." The man gave a compliment and insult at once.

Used to that kind of compliment he just smiled, "Thanks, and I get overpriced usually so I tend to where the few clothes I have until they are nothing more than rags before buying new stuff."

"I see."

Naruto walked through Iwa heading towards the large stadium in which the tournament was to be held he remembered from his previous visit that the ramen stand was near it. Getting breakfast he then made it into the building. Fugaku followed him. "Is your guard going to participate?" Onoki asked walking over to him.

Fugaku frowned again, "Participate in what? I still have not been informed as to what this 'tournament' is about."

Onoki laughed throwing his head back he before he complained about his back. After a moment he smirked at Naruto, "keeping the suspense on your old Hokage?"

"You got it oji-san!" Naruto said with his foxy grin.

"What else would the tournament be about, but one of the most fearsome competitions known to man, where it can break your spirit if your not strong enough!" Onoki stated ominously.

Fugaku's frown deepened.

"Just like I am going to crush your spirit old man when I defeat you again and keep my claim of the number one." Naruto smirked making his tone sound a bit more like Madara on purpose.

"Ha! I have been training since the last match brat, your going to lose!"

"That is what you think old man, I am going to win every single hand like last time."

The old man smirked down at him, "Care to make a bet around that fact brat?"

Naruto nodded, "Sure." neither noticed how silent everyone had gotten as the watched the back and forth.

"If you lose even one hand… you have to forfeit the entire thing, and the you have to bow down to me proclaiming me the true Master of Janken."

Fugaku blinked.

"Alright and if I win?"

"I will bow down to you brat and state that you are the Master of Janken, or I will teach you a jutsu."

Naruto nodded before pausing, "Is there anyway I can get both?"

Onoki raised an eyebrow and chuckled. He started to shake his head no before pausing as he looked at Fugaku. "How do you think you could fair against your guard using his Sharingan."

Naruto paused as he glanced at Madara. His guardian gave a terrifying grin and cackled, "Do not worry brat, even with Fugaku using his Sharingan it will be no match for us."

Smirking to Onoki he nodded, "I can take him down, winning every match, even with him using his Sharingan."

"Very well then, if you win the tournament, and against Wicked Eyes here I will both bow down and teach you a jutsu."

"You are going down oji-san." Naruto declared.

It was silent for a moment before the crowd erupted into cheers, some shouting for Naruto to win, some shouting for Onoki to reclaim his throne. The two competitors eyed up each other before turning away from each other and walking away.

Fugaku followed him, "All of this… over Janken?" He questioned a note of disbelief in his voice.

"Obviously, what else do you think a kid like me can beat Onoki-oji-san with?" Naruto questioned with a snort.

Fugaku nodded then asked, "You think you can beat me even if I am using my eyes?"

Naruto smirked at him, "I know I can beat you." He crossed his arms.

"Interesting."

"It's only cheating if you get caught," Naruto stated, "That is the ninja motto is it not?"

"Very true."

"Alright can everyone hear me? It's time to start this tournament off! If you are not a competitor pleas make your way to the stands. If you wish to compete please go sit down at a table."

Naruto sat down at the nearest table, Fugaku sitting next to him. "This year we got a real treat as I'm sure most of you heard, Fallen King Onoki has made a wager with the Solid Hand Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki. Let us see if the Fallen King can reclaim his throne, or if Solid Hand thoroughly defeats him! But before we can get to that exciting match we have to start from the ground up! Lets kick this off with Round one! 5 Rounds of 50 hands. Remember cheating is allowed so long as you don't get caught! Begin!"

Naruto smirked at his opponent an older ninja, most likely a jounin. Naruto won easily, he liked that he could cheat with Madara's help to win constantly. Everyone here knew he was cheating, but they didn't know how. And they respected him for it.

Naruto waited as everyone else finished there rounds and round two begun, it was now double the hands. The third round came and there was now a hundred people left. "Time for the wheel of additions, for those of you who don't know since this is a formal tournament from the third round until only an uneven amount of contestants are left the wheel chooses an extra rule in place." The man spun the wheel, "Okay the first addition is… blindfolds!"

Some people walked around and passed out blindfolds. Naruto put it on still smirking he was already sitting across from his next opponent. "5 Rounds of 100 hundred hands." They had people come to watch all the contestants and count the wins and losses of each person since they were blindfolded.

Naruto once more won the round, though this was the round Fugaku lost. Finally the last people finished and the announcer spun the wheel again. "And the wheel says… Cold water!"

"Huh?" a lot of people questioned before they noticed ninja jumping up above them and using a water jutsu to make them all soaking wet. Then they used a wind jutsu to get a breeze going making them get cold fast.

The cold wet contestants went to there next opponents where they still had to fight blindfolded. Naruto once again won. Now there was only 25 people left. "Alright now that there are only 25 people left we will have th knockout style. Two names are randomly drawn. If you lose your out your name is placed back into the drawing until only ten people are left. 7 rounds of 100 hands, of course your opponent can forfeit if they don't want to suffer the punishment of losing. Again for those who don't know, if you lose in the knockout round you have to suffer the humiliation from the wheel."

Naruto's named was called first against Asusukara. "Damn, just my luck." the man grumbled.

"You want to forfeit?" Naruto asked.

The man nodded, "Ain't no way that I'm going to suffer the humiliation, if I thought I had a chance of winning I would risk it. But not against you Solid Hand."

"Winner by forfeit Solid Hand Naruto!"

The other matches went on the losers having to suffer humiliating punishments. Unspeakable horrible stuff. Naruto had to go against someone else and they to choose to forfeit so as to not suffer the terrible horrible punishment.

Finally there was only ten of them remaining. And surprisingly it was the same ten as Naruto remembered from the other tournament, well nine if you didn't include him. "Alright now that we're down to the final ten it's time for the ranking. To start with we draw numbers to give you your starting ranking and then you ten can challenge each other until either you are satisfied with your spot or an hour has passed. 3 rounds 10 hands. After the hour has passed then we start the final challenges!"

They were given their numbers and Naruto was given number 6, Deidara number 1, Kurotsuchi was number 8, and Onoki was number 7. Naruto didn't know anybody else on the top ten rankings. Finding the number 5 person he challenged them before they had a chance to challenge number 4. Naruto won against them ascending his rank up. He had to wait for number 4 to finish his fight against 3 and lose before he could challenge him. Then he challenged the girl who was number 3. He beat her and then he had to battle against Deidara who had lost his position of 1. Naruto won and then challenged the older male who held 1. Naruto won and then he stayed at the top position of number one. Onoki soon went to to number two and held his position, saying that they would do there challenge in the final battle. Deidara took number 3 and held it, while Kurotsuchi held number 4 being unable to beat Deidara. Everyone else kept fighting.

The hour passed and the announcer blew the whistle. "Okay time for the final challenges, Number 10?"

"I challenge." She said.

"Alright as per the challenge rules this is 3 rounds of 100."

The two fought and she won against number 9. She challenged number 8 but lost. "Number 8?"

He challenged but lost. Number 7 challenged number 6 and won then challenged number 5 and won again, he challenged Kurotsuchi, but lost. She chose to challenge Deidara and lost. Deidara chose to not challenge Onoki.

"Finally ladies and gentlemen it is the match we have all been waiting for, and as such we will let it be a longer match so long as the crowd agrees."

There was a loud cry of approval.

"Okay it will be 5 rounds-" The crowd started booing and calling for more. "Well looks like the crowd really wants a long drawn out battle between Solid Hand and the Fallen King. We will have 7 rounds of 50 hands-"

The crowd shouted for a 100 hands.

"Pardon me, it will be 7 rounds of 100 hands." The announcer said with a sigh. "Does the crowd want anything else?"

The crowd was silent. And then to Naruto's surprise Fugaku called out, "All rounds must be played to full."

"Does the crowd object?"

It remained silent, but Naruto could see a couple people nodding in approval at Fugaku.

"Alright then let's begin."

A fierce match of Janken began, Onoki trying to win at least one hand to get Naruto to forfeit his right to being the Janken king. As the hands passed by and then rounds Onoki became more and more desperate to win a single hand.

Finally after an intense battle between the two, Naruto thoroughly defeated Onoki, "not even one, I couldn't even win or tie one hand with you…"

"Alright everyone, Now as we all heard earlier if Solid Hand Naruto here can defeat the infamous Wicked Eye Fugaku who will be using his Sharingan he gets The Fallen King Onoki to both bow down to him in defeat, but to also teach him a jutsu. We may not be able to figure out how Solid Hand here is cheating, but can it hold up to the Sharingan? Let's find out now!"

Fugaku used the shunshin to come back down from the stadium. The two stood across from each other, "What made you call out for the rounds to be played to full?"

Fugaku gave the tiniest of smirks, "I wanted you to humiliate the Tsuchikage."

Naruto laughed at that, "Nice! Ready for me to beat you even with the sharingan?"

The man nodded and activated his sharingan. Naruto saw his three tomoe appear. "Alright this will be an interesting match, 3 rounds of 50 hands!"

"Naruto, I want you to start as if you were going to do a certain hand sign, Fugaku will react to that motion and then you'll change to what I call out, understand?"

Naruto gave a subtle nod.

The two started, Naruto twitched his hand as if he was going to do scissors and then Madara told him to do paper. Fugaku did rock and stared in shock as he lost. And so it went Naruto winning, though some were close as Fugaku tried to change his in the middle as well to recounter Naruto's counter but Naruto was able to smoothly counter Fugaku's rencounter.

Three rounds later and Naruto was declared the winner Onoki was shocked, "How the hell can you even defeat Wicked Eye Fugaku?" the man shook his head, "You must have some kind of Janken bloodline."

"That would be a weird bloodline."

"Indeed." Fugaku agreed, "You have very talented eyes Naruto, to be able to pick up the twitches at the same speed, in fact it seemed even faster, than the Sharingan and counter them so smoothly that it seemed as if you were going to make that motion all along… very impressive."

"That can't be it, remember even in round three when he was blindfolded he didn't lose a single hand." Onoki stated shaking his head.

Fugaku blinked before nodding, "That had slipped my mind, truly then I do not understand how you can win so thoroughly."

Naruto just smirked. "I think it's time for you to owe up and bow to the true king of Janken." Naruto announced raising his voice a bit to catch the attention of the people around them. Silence fell and everyone watched.

Onoki sighed, "A bet was a bet," He declared and bowed down, "I admit my defeat to the great and powerful Master of Janken Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki!" His declaration as his back gave an ominous crack and he winced complaining, "Ow my back!"

Naruto chuckled and helped the old man to straighten up. The crowd cheered. After the cheering died down, Onoki stated"Since this is a formal tournament we have to stay the rest of the day for fans who want to talk and get signatures." Leading them to some tables that were brought out.

"Ah okay, say Onoki-oji-san, what is with them calling me Solid Hand and you Fallen King, that wasn't mentioned last time."

"Well before you came around brat I was the reigning champion of Janken for well over fifty years. But even I lose a few hands. You though, you have yet to lose a single hand, even against wicked eye over there, I wouldn't be surprised if the next time you come your name has evolved or they add a title to it."

The two seated themselves at the table and starting signing cloths or other items at the request of told him to sign as Solid Hand Naruto, and only add his last names if they asked.

OoOoO- Sarutobi -OoOoO

His door opened and he looked up to see his advisors walk in, luckily though Danzo wasn't with them. Danzo always brought him a headache these days. "Hiruzen." Homura stated standing next to Koharu.

"Yes?"

"We have heard that you allowed the Jinchuuriki to leave the village, and to Iwa no less!"

"And?" He asked staring at them lighting his pipe.

"Such foolish behavior can not be allowed, if Iwa decides to keep the Jinchuriki we would lose our weapon!" Koharu protested with a glare.

"Iwa will not Keep Naruto, and you would be wise to not address the boy as a weapon again." He stated firmly, "If Onoki-dono does decided to do something foolish than Fugaku will take care of the matters and get Naruto back safely."

"You sent the Uchiha clan head with the Jinchuuriki?" Homura asked.

"Of course, he was around when he heard that Naruto wished to go to Iwa and needed a guard, he offered his services, seeing no reason to deny Naruto from going I allowed it."

"But the Coup the Uchiha plan!"

Hiruzen leveled a glared at them, "You two know as well as I do that Fugaku hates his clan's actions as much as we do, he is doing his best to get them to see reason… if it were not for him they would have revoluted a lot sooner."

"But you can't trust him around the Kyuubi! His clan was behind the attack 7 years ago."

Hiruzen puffed a circle of smoke out. "I have told you that those actions were a rogue Uchiha."

"And you have given us no proof of it."

"If I were to reveal my source that would but my source in danger." He told them.

"That still does not negate the fact that Fugaku could choose to utilize this opportunity to take control of the jinchuuriki for the coup." Koharu stated.

"Perhaps not, but I trust Fugaku."

"Why do you not think Iwa would do something to the jinchuuriki, especially if they figure out his lineage?" Homura asked.

"Iwa already knows of his lineage, they have known since earlier this year. They do not care to pass the actions of the parents onto the child like some people like to do." Hiruzen stated.

"Very well than, but if we lose our Jinchuuriki do to your foolish actions we will be formally petitioning the daimyo for you to be replaced with someone of more mental soundness."

"Perhaps before you judge me to harsly you should read this." Hiruzen stated amused as he blew out another circle of smoke. Digging through his drawer he pulled out the latest edition of the red alert. Flipping it open to a certain page he slid his book to them.

"Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, known as Solid Hand Naruto, has thoroughly defeated the previous King Onoki, this legend, in the one tournament he has partaken in not lost a single hand. Kumo has further added that he has won the genin cup while he was staying in their village." Koharu read outloud.

"Hiruzen, what is this book?" Homura questioned.

He raised an eyebrow surprised, "You don't know? Well I guess it's more commonly used in the other four villages rather than ours since we don't host a tournaments are generally a secret to the other villages, but outsiders are welcomed to participate if they have someone willing to front them. They request that the outsiders do not tell others what it is, but it is not enforced. I myself happened to know that Kumo has speed races, and that Suna has wind and puppet competitions. Anyways the red alert book is generally used to show people who can humiliate you. Like Kakashi for example he is in there because he tends to finish his opponents jutsu's before them even if they are a master at the technique."

"If Iwa's tsuchikage is so weak to lose to a child then perhaps they should no longer be considered a major five." Homura suggested slowly.

Hiruzen snorted, "Do not think that just because Onoki-dono lost in a tournament that the village is weak, the tournament can be anything, we do not know what it is."

"Perhaps you should use that spy network of Jiraiya's to find out about their strength."

Deciding to amuse his former teammates he agreed, "Next time Jiraiya is in town I will ask him to find out, or report if he already knows. I am a bit surprised he hasn't shown up yet…"

"Very well, we shall take our leave now."

 **A/n Well that is the tournament, and you get to see about what other people think about Naruto's vacation. I hope you enjoy!**


	16. Chapter 16

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

Naruto collapsed into the booth across from Onoki, Deidara, and Kurotsuchi. He sat next to Fugaku. The three were at a fancy restaurant.

"I'm exhausted." Naruto complained.

Kurotsuchi nodded in agreement.

"Ha! You better get used to it brat," Onoki stated with a bark of laughter.

"When I agreed to guard you, I did not think I would actually have to save you from a group of fangirls," Fugaku teased in a flat voice.

The only reason Naruto knew he was teasing was from all his experience with his guardian. "You did such a good job Naru-chan!" Hashirama congratulated him.

"It was only because of me that he did so well." Madara stated crossing his arms.

"Of course! Thank you for helping our little Naru-chan cheat!" Hashirama said hugging Madara who quickly shoved him off.

"Baka!" Madara shouted.

Hashirama pouted and bent down a depression cloud over his head.

Naruto watched amused, before turning his attention back to the table. He looked at his menu and since the didn't have ramen he decided he would ordered inarizushi. "Ohh Naru-chan have you tried mushroom mixed soup? It's my favorite food." Hashirama asked pointing to the side dish. Giving a small shake of his head he decided to try it.

The waitress came by and took their order. They ate and Naruto amusedly watched as Onoki and Deidara got into another argument about the boy's choice in art. "Let's go to the hot springs after dinner." Deidara suggested after they finished their argument at an impasse.

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed enthusiastically. So after they finished eating the group went to relax in the hot springs.

After they had relaxed a bit Fugaku sighed, "I needed this." He muttered.

"Oh?" Naruto asked.

The man opened an eye and said, "Being a clan head is stressful."

Naruto nodded, it was probably more stressful when his clan wanted to plan a coup. The shimmers had told him how Fugaku was one of the few trying to calm the clan down, yet that the masked uchiha was still egging the more vocal members on.

After the trip was done they went to the hotel and Naruto quickly fell asleep. The next day he woke up to Deidara banging on his door, "Come on Naruto let me teach you more about the beauty of art!" The boy shouted.

"Im up! Give me a minute to get dressed!" Naruto shouted back.

Getting changed he left the hotel following Deidara, with Fugaku following him. The two boys sparred a bit with Deidara clearly being the winner despite Naruto putting up a good fight. Still it was a good fight.

Fugaku watched ready to interfere if something were to go wrong. After they finished there spar Deidara showed Naruto some of his art.

"Say Deidara you say they only appear in the standard fire colors yeah? Maybe you could find a way to change the color of your explosives? Or maybe find a way for your explosions to take a certain shape? And if you could do that maybe you could find a way to get your explosions to blow up in a certain picture or design yeah? That would be even more artistic, at least I think it is." Naruto suggested.

"That… is brilliant!" Deidara shouted him tackling him in a hug.

Naruto smiled. "How do you make the explosive clay anyways?"

"Well I have the Explosion Release bloodline, un. It allows me to mix Earth and lightning chakra together to create a very destructive chakra I can use it out of my hands and feet if I wanted to, but I prefer shoving the destructive chakra into clay which is very receptive to it and then activating it."

Naruto nodded. "Thats cool!"

Thinking he wondered… Entering his mindscape he stood in front of Kurama, "Hey Kurama were you listening to what Deidara said."

" **Yes I was, what of it brat?** " The grumpy foxed asked opening an eye halfway.

"Do you think your chakra can do something similar? Your chakra is destructive right?"

The eye opened fully and the great fox laughed, " **Perhaps it might, you should try it.** "

Naruto opened his eye back to the real world.

"Hey Deidara, I want to try something, do you have any non explosive clay on you?"

The boy nodded, "Yeah, why?" He questioned handing over a small lump of clay the size of a marble.

Naruto giggled, "Let's just see if this works." Pulling the kyuubi's chakra he pushed a tiny amount into it. He noticed that the light grey clay changed into a darker grey. Deidara's eyes widened a bit.

"The color of the clay took a red tint to it." He explained to the boy.

Fugaku frowned, "Naruto."

"Its fine! I'm just experimenting."

Fugaku nodded but came closer.

Deidara tilted his head, "What was that red chakra you shoved into it?"

"The chakra color is different? Huh. I have a second source of chakra, you know a mutation that some are born with?"

Deidara gave a nod of understanding. "Anyways I know my normal chakra won't be destructive but the other chakra…."

The boys eyes light up, "I see! Because Mutations can have a variety of effect you think it might have a similar effect to my explosive release!" He said excited.

"Yep! I don't know how to activate it, would you like to?"

Deidara nodded and got ready. "Throw it!"

Naruto tossed the lump of clay high into the air and away from them. The two boys watched as Deidara said "Katsu!"

At first nothing seemed to happen, and then Naruto watched as it expanded rapidly and then his world went white. His ears were ringing loudly and after a moment it started to go away. Blinkin he found himself on the ground same with Deidara and covering them was Fugaku. Above the clan head was an earth dome.

Fugaku sat up, "Are you two boys okay?" He asked looking at them.

Naruto nodded. Hashirama was circling around him… and Madara… his eyes were decidedly giddly looking.

Deidara beamed, "That. Was. Amazing! How much of that chakra did you put in?"

Naruto blushed, "Only a little bit."

"Please! You have to make me some of that clay to have on hand!"

"Sure-"

"Not for free." Fugaku interrupted.

Naruto blinked. "You should never offer any services for free, and that chakra you used made those bombs seriously deadly, I would also need Deidara here agree that he must never use those bombs made from your chakra against a Konoha ninja."

The young boy nodded, "Naruto, say this:" Madara commanded.

"Fugaku-sama, I would be honoured if you would be the negotiator for me in this exchange." Naruto said formally.

The man raised an eyebrow but nodded, "Very well Naruto-san I will be willing to negotiate for you."

Deidara realizing that this was going to be a formal transaction bowed, "Please allow me to get a negotiator for myself."

Fugaku nodded, About twenty minutes later they were in the tsuchikage's office.

"I have agreed to be Deidara's negotiator for this transaction, he says that the cause of the large explosion from earlier was a mutation chakra Naruto-kun has. He wants Naruto to infuse some of his clay with this chakra. Is that correct."

Fugaku nodded, "Yes that is correct, my client is to be paid for doing this, and we want a guarantee that the special clay will not be used against Konoha in return for offering this service."

"That is reasonable, I will create the documents for an agreement to not use those bombs against Konoha. What price do you want to name."

"For each pound of clay, 2,000,000 ryo."

Onoki frowned, "That is two much, 500,000 ryo"

"That large explosion was from only a small marble size of clay. 1,000,000."

"Fine." He agreed. Then the next hour was spent on paperwork drafting the agreement and having to agree on the words and clauses and all that.

"Alright. That's done." Fugaku said nodding to Naruto.

"Thanks Fugaku-sama."

The man looked at him for a moment, "Just call me Fugaku." He stated offering his hand.

Naruto's eyes widened at the show of respect the Uchiha clan head was offering him, "Very well Fugaku." Naruto said with a smile as he shook the man's hand.

"Alright, I need to uphold the other part of my bet now, so brat I'm going to teach you an earth jutsu." Onoki said leading him to a training field, "The jutsu I will be teaching you is Doton: Mobile core. The hand signs are ram ox bore. And then slam your hand on the ground."

Onoki demonstrated raising himself up ten feet. "You can use this to raise or lower a patch of earth."

Naruto nodded and tried it, the first few times nothing happened, but with pointers from Madara and Hashirama he soon got it raising up a couple feet.

"Thats my job done, just keep practicing with it to get better." Onoki stated with a nod.

"Now make this pound of clay into the super explosive clay!" Deidara said rushing to him.

Fugaku looked to Onoki who grumbled, "I'll have the money delivered to you once I get back to my office."

Fugaku nodded. "Very well."

Naruto grabbed the clay, but before he could put Kurama's chakra into it he was in his mindscape. "Hey, why did you bring me in?"

" **The amount of chakra to put into the pound of clay will be a bit more than the marble of clay from earlier.** "

"Huh why? Wouldn't that make a larger explosion?"

" **No, because the small amount you had earlier was condensed into a smaller form it created more bang, to create the same size the chakra density would have to be equal to what you put into the marble size.** "

"Oh… I don't know how desne the chakra was in the marble."

" **Leave that to me brat, I will put the amount of chakra needed and stop when it is done.** "

"Okay, Thanks Kurama-san!"

The kyuubi nodded and Naruto opened his eyes to the real world. He felt Kurama's chakra come to him and be shoved into the pound of clay. After a few seconds Kurama pulled his chakra back. "There you go Deidara, one highly explosive pound of clay… try not to blow Iwa up with it yeah?"

The boy beamed at him, "Sweet! Thank you so much Naruto!"

Naruto grinned back.

He practiced the earth jutsu Onoki taught him, while Deidara experimented with his clay trying to figure out how to add colors or shape. Onoki had the money delivered in a scroll which Naruto put in his pocket. The day passed and with Deidara's help they found the store that sold the clay and Naruto bought about ten pounds of the stuff that he sealed into a new sealing scroll he bought. They went to eat though Naruto had to run from a group of fangirls before he could get there.

They ate and relaxed at the hotsprings once more, and then they went to sleep. The next day naruto left with Fugaku and was surprised when people actually came to say goodbye to him, fans from the tournament, Deidara, Kurotsuchi, even Onoki came to say goodbye to him.

"Next year brat I'll beat you."

Naruto smirked, "Keep trying old man, I ain't going to let you win."

And then Naruto and Fugaku began their journey back, though the two took it more slowly going at only an average genin pace, it would take them a couple extra days, but… neither of them were in a hurry to return.

As they ran back Naruto and Fugaku would play a bit of Janken the man using his Sharingan trying to beat Naruto, or just even figure out how he kept winning. Naruto when they got back into fire country took off his Iwa headband and put it in his scroll.

They got back late at night, Konoha seemed oddly silent, the very air itself still, the two glanced at each other as they entered both noting the sleeping guards. "It's getting late, why don't you come sleep at my house tonight and then tomorrow morning we can report to the hokage."

"Sure."

The two walked through konoha. The two walked and slowly they came to the Uchiha clan grounds. Naruto blanched at the scene before him, bodies lay on the ground the streets tainted red with blood. Men, women, and children were on the ground in lifeless positions.

Fugaku ran forward. Naruto followed him not wanting to be alone amongst the bodies, and the many shimmers that were starting to appear.

They entered into a house to come across a horrifying scene.

 **A/N: Bwhahaha, explosions! Mwhahaha, Cliffhanger! To all you who wondered what was going to happen with the Uchiha massacre! Here you go, enjoy.**


	17. Chapter 17

A teenager stood over the down form of a boy, who Naruto recognized from his class, Sasuke. The teenager looked up his face scarily blank. His guardian was looking around in horror, "My.. my clan…"

Hashirama went over to him and started trying to comfort the man.

"Itachi… what?" Fugaku asked his eyes wide in horror.

"Tou-san." The teenager stated flatly.

"You…?" The clan head questioned in disbelief.

Itachi tilted his head to the side slightly, "I am glad you showed up, now I don't have to hunt you down to kill you." He stated.

Madara growled and suddenly a large thing formed around him, "How dare you…" he seethed glaring at Itachi. The air became heavy and difficult to breathe under his killing intent he was releasing.

Apparently he was having some kind of effect on the living as he was Naruto because the two Uchiha's paused looking around.

"What… what is this feeling?" Fugaku muttered.

Madara swung one of the arms of the large thing at Itachi who shuddered but otherwise seemed unaffected. "How dare you kill the clan! Kinslayer!"

Naruto watched as his guardian continued to try and pound Itachi to the ground. Hashirama sighed. Suddenly Madara appeared in front of him. "Naruto. Do you think I could temporarily posses you to crush that slaughterer?" He asked. Though they had never tried possesion before.

"Madara no." Hashirama stated.

His guardian growled at him his eyes spinning madly.

Naruto bit his lip, Hashirama frowned and wood sprouted up and tried to wrap around Madara. Madara scowled at him and the two begun fighting. Naruto sighed in relief as Hashirama led his pissed off guardian away taking away the heavy feeling.

Apparently while the shimmers had distracted him the two living had been talking. Sasuke started to stir, he opened his eyes, "Tou-san…" he muttered. Naruto noticed that his eyes had one tomoe in them.

"Naruto. Get Sasuke to the hospital!" Fugaku commanded.

"Understood. Don't die, your son will need his father." Naruto stated to him as he went over to Sasuke.

"Let's get out of here." Naruto stated gently offering his hand the boy, Sasuke nodded shakily taking it.

The two boys ran out of the Uchiha clan. Naruto flared his Chakra out three times, a rudimentary sos signal he had been taught. The two boys continued to the hospital. He entered, "Oi you lot! Get him to a room!"

"And why should we listen to you demon brat." The nurse on duty stated not even looking up

Naruto growled, "Because Sasuke here needs treatment."

The nurse looked up and her eyes went wide at seeming him practically holding the boy up. She pressed a button and a team of medics came out with a stretcher. The Nurse from before glared at him, "What did you do demon?" She hissed.

"I did nothing." Naruto stated.

She glared at stared flatly back adopting the Uchiha expression #15, 'You are beneath me and I will not listen to what a plebian such as you has to say.'

Maybe Madara was rubbing off on him… just a little bit.

An hour later Fugaku appeared heavily wounded, "I need treatment." He managed to get out before he collapsed.

Naruto stayed in the hospital lobby and a few minutes after they scrolled Fugaku out the Hokage appeared. "Uzumaki! Report." The third said sharply.

He gave a nod, "Me and Fugaku-sama were returning, since it was so late he graciously offered his home for the night stating that we would report his successful mission in the morning. We arrived at the Uchiha clan ground to find bodies scattered about." Naruto shuddered. "Fugaku-sama ran off and I followed him, we found an older by whom he addressed as Itachi standing over the body of Sasuke. He told me to take Sasuke to the hospital and I did. I have been waiting here for Fugaku-sama, he appeared an hour later heavily wounded, they took him for treatment and then you arrived Hokage-sama." Naruto reported.

The third gave a nod. "I see. Go sleep, I will summon you tomorrow for a full debriefing."

Naruto bowed and left.

He returned to his apartment to find Hashirama there, though his guardian was not. "Where is guardian-shimmer?" Naruto asked.

"He's offering comfort to the newly dead Uchiha. He's also scolding them for there foolishness of trying to plan a coup. He is also explaining what they are now. For those who choose to pass on he is helping them with that if they can pass on that is."

"What do you mean if they can pass on?"

"Well to be able to fully pass on you have to be in at peace with yourself. That is willingly of course, you can be forced to pass on by another spirit destroying you."

"How can you be destroyed?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"We are considered destroyed if we use up all of our spiritual energy."

"Ah." Naruto stated as he finished getting ready for bed. He laid down and soon fell asleep.

He woke the next day to a knock. Going over he opened the door and saw the commander, "Hokage-sama has requested your presence."

"Okay, let me get dressed."

The commander nodded and Naruto closed the door and changed into his semi formal clothing he had gotten in Iwa when he first visited. Noticing that the clothes seemed to be getting small on him he grinned, that was sure proof he was growing!

Quickly sombering though he went to the Hokage tower, Hashirama following him, as well as his guardian who was back again.

He went into the old man's room and saw that Fugaku was already there, he gave a small nod to the man who nodded back. Naruto gave a small smile to Tobirama who dipped his head in acknowledgement before straightening back up.

"Fugaku-dono please give a full report of what happened since leaving Konoha."

"After we left we traveled at high chunin speeds for a few hours before Naruto-san had to take a break to allow his chakra to refill. Because we would not make it in time at the current rate I offered to carry him so we could move faster while his Chakra recharged. He agreed and we made good progress. Upon arriving in Iwa territory he surprised me with the fact he was actually an honorary shinobi. When we got there he made his way to a prominent building and he greeted an older boy named Deidara. The Two burst into a room and it was only after I saw the figure behind the desk did I realize it was the Tsuchikage. And that he called him Oji-san. The two bantered a bit before the two boys decided to race to the hotel where Naruto-san would be staying. We went to eat dinner and after we returned I had my first encounter with Naruto's fangirls. The boy wisely fled and I followed after him." Fugaku stated giving Naruto a sympathetic pat.

"We chatted a bit upon arriving back at the hotel where it was revealed that he knew who his parents were and of the burden he carried, but despite the fact that announcing who his parents are to Konoha would relieve some of the hate he receives he chooses not to so he can earn their respect himself. The next day it was time for the tournament, the boy met up with Onoki-sama before it started and they made a bet, if Naruto-san could win without losing a single hand than Onoki-sama would bow down to him and proclaim him master of the tournament or Naruto-san had the option to learn a jutsu. If Naruto were to lose even a single hand then he would have to forfeit and proclaim Onoki-sama as the true master. I was also invited to participate in the tournament. Naruto-san asked if there was a way to win both, Onoki-sama said that If Naruto could beat me while I am using my sharingan than he could have both. Everyone had heard the two bet against each other."

The third raised an eyebrow. Naruto gave a grin reminsit of Madara when he was plotting something mischievous.

"The torument then started and Naruto-san was announced as Solid Hand Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, and Onoki-sama was announced as Fallen King Onoki. The tournament started, I was able to make it until round three when blindfolds were introduced. The next round soaked everyone in water and had some wind users created a cool breeze. Now soaking wet, cold, and blindfolded the fourth round commenced. With only 25 people left the tournament style changed a bit and names were randomly drawn, if you lose now you had to face a humiliating punishment. Of course you could spare yourself if you forfeited, the two people who were drawn against Naruto-san choose to forfeit."

"Then the final ten were chosen and they were assigned numbers and had to fight against the number higher than them to get a higher ranking. Naruto-san ascended to the top Onoki-sama to second. After the hour had passed they were able to do final challenges. This was the moment everyone had been waiting for as Onoki-sama challenged Naruto-san. The announcer stated it would be five rounds, but the crowd disagreed wanting it to be longer. So they made it 7 rounds. The announcer asked if the crowd wanted anything else, and after having seen Naruto-san's skill beliving he could humiliate Onoki-sama I requested the rounds be played to full. The crowd agreed with my request."

Fugaku gave a slight pause. "Naruto-san dominated, Onoki-sama in all of the rounds could not win a single one. After the round was over it was time for my honorary match in which I could use my Sharingan, which I could not before because that was obvious cheating. Cheating was allowed so long as they didn't find out how you were cheating, Everyone there knows Naruto-san is cheating somehow, and they respect him because they can't figure out how he is cheating."

Here Fugaku took a deep breath, "Naruto-san won against me using my Sharingan I don't know how he did it, but he did."

The third looked flatly at Naruto, "I think I have an idea of how Naruto-kun won."

Fugaku raised an eyebrow, but he continued on, "Onoki-sama bowed down before Naruto-san and proclaimed him the true master, but he wasn't able to do much more before his back cause him problems. The two then sat at a table and they had to sit for hours signing things for fans. At one point I had to rescue Naruto-san from a group of girls who had surrounded him." Fugaku's lip twitching up revealed his still lasting amusement at the situation "After they were done Onoki-sama treated us to diner. After dinner we went to the hotsprings and relaxed. The next day Naruto-san met up with Deidara and the two sparred. The two chatted about explosives which Deidara called art.." Fugaku pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Naruto-san then accessed the kyuubi's chakra and pushed it into the clay trying to mimic Deidara's Explosion release bloodline. I came closer weary of the Kyuubi's chakra breaking free, but Naruto seemed to have it under control. The two boys threw the marble size lump of clay and exploded it. The blast was larger than expected and it was only due to my fast reaction of throwing up an earth dome and tossing the two boys to the ground that saved us from serious injuries. Deidara wished for more of the highly destructive bombs Naruto-san could make. Naruto-san surprised me with formally requesting me to be his negotiator, under the old laws. Deidara seemed to realize that Naruto was making the transaction formal and had Onoki-sama be his negotiator, we hashed out a deal." Fugaku pulled out some papers and handed it the the hokage.

"For each pound of clay Deidara wants he has to pay 1,000,000 ryo. And he can not used those bombs against Konoha."

The hokage looked over the paperwork and nodded. "After that was done Onoki-sama held up his other part of the bet and taught Naruto Doton: Mobile core. The day ended peacefully after that and we left, with Onoki-sama Deidara and others actually coming to say goodbye, though for Onoki-sama it was just to tell Naruto that he won't' win next year. We decided that there was no rush in returning so we went at average genin pace, six days later we arrived late at night, seeing as to how late it was I decided that we should report in the morning and offered Naruto to stay at my place for the night. And then we arrived to find my clan slaughtered..."

The hokage held up a hand, "That is enough."

Fugaku nodded.

"Is this what happened?" The hokage asked Naruto.

"Yep!"

"Very well… now Fugaku-dono… are you going to tell me what the tournament is about."

Naruto saw Fugaku's lip twitch upwards in amusement, "It is one of the most fearsome competitions known to man, spirits can be broken if you are not strong enough." He stated flatly.

Sarutobi sighed, "That would be a no then."

Naruto beamed at Fugaku who gave a nod to him. Suddenly he heard shouting he tilted his head and turned to the wall just in time to see a flood of shimmers come in, Uchiha shimmers who were pissed and trying to attack the Hokage. Tobirama Hashirama and Madara immediately started pushing them back.

"Naruto!" He heard the Hokage snap out.

Turning he sweatdropped, "Sorry… I thought I heard something." He said, knowing the Hokage would probably figure it had something to do with the shimmers. Behind him the battle waged on. He twitched as a kunai passed through him.

The Hokage eyed him, "Fugaku could you leave us for a moment."

The man frowned giving a worried glance to Naruto but he nodded and left. "What is it Naruto-kun?"

Naruto raised a hand as he turned to glare at the fighting shimmers. "What the hell do you guys think you are doing barging into the hokage's office like that!" He shouted at the shimmers.

The Uchiha clan members who had burst in startled looking at him. Tobirama sighed. Madara glared at them and Hashirama beamed taking his place behind Naruto again.

"You.. you can see us?" One of them asked an older looking male.

"Yes I can, now what are you lot doing barging into the office and starting a fight like that?"

"He ordered our clan to be massacred!" One of the younger males snarled pointing at the third.

"Really? Well from what I understand you were the ones planning the coup, and If I remember correctly than if any clan is caught planning a coup it is well within the rights of the Hokage to send an execution order, especially if they have been unwilling to negotiate on the matters." Naruto stated inwardly thanking Tobirama for his lessons on Konoha laws.

"You!" The old man snarled charging at him.

Madara stepped in front of Naruto, easily stopping him, "You would do well to not attack my charge, lest I send you to the next world forcefully." He stated crossing his arms.

"Why are you siding with the demon brat! He obviously was in on us being killed!" The old man shouted seemingly the leader of the group.

"My charge was not aware of the masacre, only that you guys were foolishly planning a coup just because of a few false rumours. You lot are no better than children getting upset over a few measly words. Why should you care what Konoha thinks of you. The Uchiha clan is above such petty matters, and now that you are dead I expect you to behave accordingly or be sent to the next world." Madara stated looking down at them.

Naruto looked on impressed as most of the members of the group started looking embarrassed. The old man at the front scoffed, "Why should we listen to you, your dead same as us you can't do anything to stop us from doing what we want."

Madara reappeared in front of the man holding him by his throat in the air. No one except possibly Hashirama and Tobirama had seen him move. "Very well than, if that is what you believe I will be glad to force you to the next world." With that Naruto saw a waft of what looked like smoke come out from the man and into Madara. A few seconds later the shimmer disappeared completely.

"Damn." Naruto muttered impressed. Madara smirked at him. "Would anyone else like to challenge Madara?" Naruto questioned wishing he had popcorn.

The group shook their heads and fled, Madara snorted, "Wimps. Looks like I have to make sure they follow the rules of the in between if the current clan head can not control them."

"Will you explain what is going on Naruto-kun?" The hokage asked.

"Sorry, a group of Uchiha-shimmers came in and started fighting, after you dismissed Fugaku I decided that since they weren't listening to Tobirama-sensei, Hashi-chan, or my guardian than maybe they would listen to me since I'm living. They stopped and they stated that you ordered there clan to be killed, which is well within your right as hokage. Anyways Guardian-shimmer took care of them now that they were paying attention."

Sarutobi scowled, "I did not order the massacre, Danzo did pretending he had my permission. I sometimes hate your ability, you know." Sarutobi said frowning at him.

Naruto frowned wondering why, Tobirama rolled his eyes, "Because you gain insight into all sorts of sensitive information you are not supposed to be privy to."

"Ah." Naruto stated.

The Hokage sighed, "Is there anything you need to report about your trip to Iwa that you are unable to mention in front of Fugaku-dono?"

"Not really. It was Madara that instructed me what to say for the formal negotiation though."

"I see. Is everything with the spirits good?"

"I would recommend explaining what happened to the clan to Fugaku. It would be unwise if someone else, such as the rouge Uchiha, were to explain it to him and twist the facts." Tobirama stated, Naruto relayed this.

Naruto looked at them and they nodded, "Yeah everything is good now."

Sarutobi called Fugaku back in. "Alright. Naruto your dismissed," The Hokage told him, Naruto bowed and left.

He was on his way back to his apartment, taking the side streets, when the commander appeared in front of him and commanded him to get changed. Naruto did and the man took him for more training.

After training with the commander for the day Naruto returned to his apartment to fall asleep.

 **A/N: Heres a new chapter. Hope you enjoy.**


	18. Chapter 18

After that things started becoming normal again. A week after the massacre fugaku and Sasuke came to thank him for his help in getting the boy to the hospital. His training resumed and the second year of the merged academy started. This year they focused on math and science had Pe twice a month and a couple more health classes. Naruto mostly tuned them out his grade falling as he kept forgetting to turn the work in. When one of the teachers scolded him for this he just shrugged, saying that he was going to be a shinobi, not a civilian. The teacher just frowned at that but left him alone.

A half year passed by, Naruto was learning from Tobirama about politics while his hands continued with the three-step. Slowly getting faster millisecond by millisecond. From Hashirama the man taught him his mostly defensive taijutsu style, it was made so that you were defensive, but you could also easily do jutsu's.

Madara taught him his more aggressive style which allowed him to attack and also quickly break away to attack with jutsu's.

As for jutsu's Naruto now had a basic grasp on the basic five jutsu's he had been gifted for his birthday, his best jutsu was the wind blade and the fireball, followed by the earth dome. His worst was the water all and the shock wave, that wasn't to say they weren't good, it was just harder for him to do those two jutsu's when compared to the others.

As for his training with the commander he was now up to being able to process things at low jounin speed, and he himself could move at that speed without his weights and with chakra, without chakra he could go at average chunin speeds and with his weights on and no chakra he go at high gening speed.

He was still giving weekly reports to the Hokage about what his shimmers told him from the spy network that was now fully in place and operational.

As for his friendship with Shino he and the boy were still best friends. As for Sasuke he and the boy had been friends for a little bit, but Sasuke didn't like Shino and forced Naruto to choose. Naruto choose Shino. Which made his best friend really happy

He and Fugaku did eat dinner together once a month, the man seemed inclined to help him. Madara told him that Fugaku was trying to set up an alliance with him for when Naruto decided to reveal his heritage.

Naruto still thought Fugaku was just being friendly.

As for his personal studies he was working on learning the seals from the basic seal book, he could make a basic storage seal that could only hold one item. He was working on making the more advance copy.

The small colony Shino gave him seemed to be changing, some of them looked a bit different. So he was going to the Aburame clan with the colony to as about it. Shino met him at the front door and welcomed him inside. Naruto was led to a table and he was seated after placing his colony on the table, his colony was contained in a medium size plastic container, there was an opening at the top which made it look as if the bugs could leave at anytime, but the opening actually had a barrier seal which prevented them from leaving. Soon Shino's father Shibi came in, "Naruto-san." The man greeted.

"Shibi-sama." Naruto responded politely.

The man went to where the colony was placed and seemed to be analysing them, then he placed his hand through the opening and sent a few of his own Kikaichu inside. They all watched in shock as Naruto's colony viciously attacked Shibi's Kikaichu his colony tore them apart and they watched as they started feasting on the dead bodies.

Naruto's eyes went wide.

"Interesting, you have been feeding them your chakra regularly correct?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. I just noticed that they seem different looking than when Shino originally gifted me the colony."

"I see, my son mentioned you are colorblind, as such you can not see that your colony has taken a red hue to them."

"Red?" Naruto repeated with a frown, trying to figure out why that color was making him worry a bit.

" **My chakra is red brat. These bugs of yours have been feasting on your chakra which has mine mixed into it.** " Kurama told him pulling him into his mindscape.

Naruto gave a nod as he exited. Looking at Shibi he said, "I see… my chakra mutation seemed to have an affect on them."

The man raised an eyebrow above his glasses. "I understand." The man once more extended his hand over the colony and seemed to be doing nothing. "As I suspected, the colony will not respond to me." The man pushed up his glasses. "Your Kikaichu have evolved by feasting off your chakra, I wish to see if you can command them…" The man stated.

"Um okay, how do I do that?"

"If we are to test this, I must have you swear to secrecy Naruto-san."

Naruto paused, shifting his left leg he asked 'why?' to his shimmers to get an explanation.

"Most likely in order to test the theory they need to teach you something that is a clan jutsu, if it was nott so than anybody can control their bugs." Madara explained.

Naruto gave a nod, "Very well Shibi-sama."

The man nodded. "In order to control the hive we set ourselves as the hive's queen, this is usually done at birth by allowing the kikaichu to colonise our bodys. This forms a bond between us and them. And we are able to mentally command them, it is generally instinctive to control them as we have them with us from our birth."

The man paused to see if Naruto was following along, he was. "You seemed to have formed half a bond with them, they recognise you as there queen, but you don't know how to properly communicate with them, which is what caused them to attack my Kikaichu, because they saw them as outsiders, and they can't communicate with you to ask what to do so they seem to default to aggressiveness."

"Ah, so I need to learn how to communicate with them then."

"Indeed, though you will never have the full bond of your colony living inside your body, to do so now would be dangerous for you. Still we will provide you with a gourd so you can bring your Kikaichu with you… if you can form the proper bond that is and command your Kikaichu." Shibi stated.

Naruto nodded, "I thank you for this honor Shibi-sama."

"It would be a waste to not have your Kikaichu be used for fighting." Shibi said in return.

Shibi took his colony and led him to an empty room. "This room is a bonding room, it is typically used when our colonies have suffered serious losses and we need to bring new Kikaichu to our colony so that they don't die off. Sit and then open your colony and feed them, when you feel them pulling on your chakra that is the best time to try and connect your mind the the hive mind. It may take awhile, and they may even become filled up, but so long as they are on your skin you should be able to connect with the hive mind… once you find the connection they no longer need to be on your skin."

Naruto gave a nod. He placed his hand through the opening and watched as the colony swarmed around it and started pulling his chakra, he had long since gotten used to the feeling. He held his hand there for hours trying to feel there minds, eventually they did stop feeding. Though as more and more hours passed shibi told him that they were done for today and that he was to comeback everyday after the academy until he could connect his mind to the Kikaichu.

5 days later it was saturday and Naruto was once again sitting in the bonding room with his hand inside of the container. Deciding to ask Kurama if he could think of how Naruto might be able to connect with the hive mind he went into his mindscape, and stared in shock as he saw the relatively small colony there flying around the room.

" **So you finally decided to come here, took you long enough brat.** " Kurama said with a scoff.

"There here in my mindscape?" Naruto questioned.

" **Yes, and now that you realized that focus your attention on them, try to feel the connection between you and them, once you can feel the connection in here than focus on feeling that same connection in the real world.** " Kurama told him.

Naruto nodded and sat cross leg on top of the ground. He focused trying to feel the connection. Having no sense of time in his mindscape he had no idea how long it was, but it felt like forever when he felt the connection between him and the colony. He could here there buzzing softly. Though he didn't understand what they were saying, if anything.

Opening his eyes he saw that the room was now pitch black, and that Shibi and shino were gone. Shrugging he felt for the connection. Slowly the room lightened light coming in through the window. Shibi came in and watched him. An hour later naruto finally found the faint connection which now that he found it, was easy to feel. The faint buzzing that was the colonies hive mind.

He blinked and looked up at Shibi, "I found the connection."

"Prove it by commanding your colony to get of your hand." Shibi stated.

Naruto nodded and wondering how to do that he focused on the connection, 'Hello?' He called out inside his head to the buzzing. 'Please get off my hand.' He requested. He heard the buzzing change a bit and the kikaichu left his hand.

"Very good. I will bring in a gourd to hold your colony." Shibi said as he left and came back. He was holding a gourd that looked relatively small, "This is a five galleon gourd, it is placed sideways on your lower back." He stated. "Until your colony becomes larger this will do."

"How do I make my colony large Shibi-sama? They always seem to stay around this size."

"Now that you are learning how to control them we will give you another small colony to incorporate into yours, that will give you enough to fill this gourd halfway and it should be enough that they can slowly expand on their own. Though it will take time for you to get your colony up to the amount normal Aburame has. If we were to add to many normal Kikaichu your colony could lose whatever special abilities they have developed from feasting on your chakra."

Naruto nodded and commanded his colony to stay in the gourd that it was there new home. He could feel that they seemed pleased. "Now to bond with these you should do the same process, though it will be much easier now that you know what you're looking for, you will temporarily have two bonds until you tell them to merge into one hive."

Naruto nodded and stuck his hand in, unlike before he could easily find the second connection, and then he merged the two hives together. He released the Kikaichu from the plastic container and they flew the gourd. "Good, now I'm sure that you know about the basic abilities of Kikaichu?"

"Yes," Naruto stated.

"You may find that yours have something special related to the chakra mutation you have. It will take some experimentation though, before you might find what the ability can be, or abilities." Shibi stated. "Please come by every month so we can check on you and your colony."

"Okay."

"Until your colony is a higher size do not do anything to risk them. Once they do become higher size and they stabilize their genes from feasting on your chakra we will harvest a starter colony from them to see if we can find someone else who can use them, that is what we want for giving you a clan secret."

"I understand."

Shibi nodded and dismissed him.

Naruto went back to his apartment and after removing the gourd he collapsed in exhaustion. Hashirama chuckled at him and Madara rolled his eyes, both were amused that because of Kurama's chakra Naruto had became an honorary Aburame.

Which Naruto was about ready to start training with on tail of Kurama's chakra, though he was only allowed to train the chakra with an Anbu called Tenzo, it was because the man had a mockery of the Mokuton, given to him by one of Orochimaru's experiments.

As the time passed he continued his training. His birthday came and went. The third had given him the next book up for sealing which Naruto was now getting the hang of. Fugaku had given him a scroll containing the great fireball jutsu, which Naruto appreciated even if he didn't need the Anbu had given him a pouch to hold clay in, the pouch was actually bigger on the inside though do to some seals, it had a little bit of clay in it. Naruto had been experimenting with using Kurama's chakra to create the explosive clay and he had two levels so far, the light stuff. Which was a pound of clay with the bare minimum of kurama's chakra he could put in it, which led to explosions about twice the size as an exploding tag. And The big stuff which was the marble with the small amount of chakra. Those were level 1 and 2, and of course he could make some that were big up to the level 2 it just depended on the amount of clay he had when he put Kurama's chakra into it.

He, Kurama, and Madara were looking forward to seeing what putting in a whole tails worth of chakra would do.

Hashirama was scared, as was everyone else who knew about the explosive clay Naruto could make. Kurama and him had an interesting relationship, the fox was grumpy, but it loved anything destructive.

Over the four months since he had gotten his colony they had grown a little bit, not much though, but he and kurama had discovered that the Kikaichu easily handled the Biju's chakra and could develop chakra cloaks of their own, though it barely took a drop of chakra for them to cloak the whole colony in the biju's chakra. During an examination Naruto had been shown the physical difference between his Kikaichu and the standard.

The standard's main body was ovalish with ridges and six legs. His had that, but its head had two ear like appendages, and it also had one tail appendage that waved around. Which was new from four months ago because they didn't have a tail then. Shibi said that he felt they would evolve to possibly up to nine tails. Naruto had nodded in understanding. According to Shibi his Kikaichu were tinted red, and their eyes were a blood red instead of green.

Anyways the two months till december passed quickly and Naruto was giddy ready to make another trip to Iwa, he had missed Deidara and Onoki, even Kurotsuchi even if he didn't know her as well as the other two. She was seemingly the only girl his age there who didn't fangirl over him though. The eight year old boy went to go make his request.

 **A/n: And now we see the timeskip stuff starting to happen, so now were skipping a bit of time and just summarizing his training, until the next interesting scene come along. Hope you enjoy!**


	19. Chapter 19

Entering the hokage's office he smiled at the old man, "Hey jiji it's time for the tournament again."

"Indeed it is. Will you tell me what the tournament is this time?"

"Nope!"

"I see, well I have a guard for you. I will have him meet you at the gate tomorrow morning at 7, if he's not there on time feel free to head out by yourself and just tell the guards, they will inform your guard."

"Cool thanks old man!" Naruto stated hugging him.

"Of course, now I believe the Aburame wanted to see you before you left."

"Really? Okay I'll go see them then." Naruto stated and turned to leave.

He made his way to the clan grounds waving as he passed a few Aburame, and sticking his tongue out at a hyuuga who scowled at him. Arriving at the Aburame's he entered into the house waving back at members who greeted him. Most of the Aburame clan liked him, there were a few members who didn't care about him, but they didn't go out of there way to antagonise like some people did.

"Hey Shibi-sama! Jiji told me you wanted to see me before I leave?" He questioned bounding over to the man.

"Yes, since your Kikaichu are so different than normal, they seem to be becoming their own breed we have decided to name the species, we of course will respect your opinion if you have a different thought as to what to name them, we were thinking to name them Bijukaichu."

Naruto sounded it out a couple times, "What about just Bikaichu? Not as obvious as to their origins and it sounds better to say."

Shibi nodded, "Very well. Besides for that your colony has started to become bigger, and as such we are giving you a slightly larger gourd." He said gesturing. Another clan member stepped forward handing the gourd which was twice the size of his current one. It was still small enough though to go sideways. Once the ten galleon one became full he would have just enough Bikaichu to form a bug clone, though if he did that it would wipe out most of his colony. So he wasn't going to do that. He relocated his Bikaichu to the new container.

"One final thing, you told us that you were going to Iwa to partake in a formal tournament, and we do not know if you have the clothes, but we thought that these formal clothes would be an acceptable gift." Shibi stated handing over a package.

Naruto beamed, "Thank you shibi-sama!" He thanked the man as he grabbed the package. Naruto left and soon he was training with Tenzo for the one tails chakra. He had relative control over it, though if anything got him angry he lost control and went berserk, but he was getting better control of it, it now took longer to anger him in the one tail cloak. Kurama also had him working on the physical transformation which would protect him once he reached the version two state. The version one state wouldn't eat away at his cells like the version two state. He said that even if he held the version one state up at 9 tails for an entire year it would only take a month off of his life.

It was the version two that would eat away at his life. Which was why he had to have the physical transformation down, which would make him look like a fox human hybrid. He could easily transform his nails into claws, it took a bit of concentration but he could make fur sprout from his hands, he was working on doing that to the rest of his body. If he concentrated really hard he could completely transform his hand, but he could only hold it for ten seconds if he wasn't concentrating.

Done with training for today Naruto went to go eat, and then went to sleep. The next day he got up grabbed his stuff and went to the gate, at 7 he saw no sign of guard, waiting for thirty minutes he frowned before shrugging, Jiji had given him permission to go ahead. Turning to the gate guards he let them know he was heading out.

He headed at high genin speeds, since he now knew that the tournament took place on December 12th than he had left on the 5th so he would have plenty of time to get there, this year he scheduled so he could stay three days, one before the tournament and once after the tournament. Or if he was overly slow about getting there then two days after the tournament.

Five hours later and a man appeared next to him, Naruto wasn't surprised as Hashirama had alerted him, and that he was a konoha ninja.

"Hia! Are you my guard?" Naruto asked.

"Yes I am. You left without me." the man stated flatly. Naruto looked and was surprised to see a familiar patch of hair, "Oh hey Inu!" Naruto greeted.

Inu sighed, "I'm not in my mask Naruto."

"Oh yeah, why don't you have one of those color changing masks? Your hair is the same shade and style as when you wear the mask."

"I never felt the need." Inu responded. After Sloth sleeping on his job Inu had forced the Hokage to assign him to his personal guard. Tobirama told him that he had threaten to burn Saru's Icha Icha collection. Since he was on his personal guard Inu learned about his ability to see shimmers.

"What's your name then?"

"Kakashi," The man answered pulling out an orange book.

Hashirama twitched, "Tell him not to read that trash in front of you."

"Hashi-chan says that you're not to read that trash in front of me."

Kakashi gave an eye grin, "What is he going to do about it if I don't."

Hashirama grinned as he clapped his hands and a look of concentration appeared on his face as he then placed his hands on Naruto's shoulders, he felt a peaceful chakra wash over him. The branch Kakashi was just about to land on moved away from him dropping the man to the ground below. Naruto jumped after him. Hashirama looked exhausted.

"That." Naruto stated flatly.

It was a new ability that his shimmers to use jutsu's, but doing so consumed a lot of their spiritual chakra, so they had to be careful to not exhaust themselves. Not that Kakashi knew that, "As you can see Hashi-chan can still use his Mokuton… so no reading that trash in front." Naruto stated rolling his eyes.

Madara smirked, "Of course if he wants to read it behind you I am all for it." The man stated with a lecherous grin.

Hashirama's eye twitched, "Dara-chan." He growled.

"What can you really blame a guy for wanting some entertainment, I haven't had any action in over like 80 years. I read a little bit of the book and to imagine a girl lick-" Madara stated waggling his eyebrows.

Naruto covered his ears with a yelp. "Dara-chan!" Naruto shouted at him.

Madara cackled.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Perverted Uchiha." Naruto informed him, as he took his hands of his ear.

"Ah," Kakashi stated.

"Dara-chan says to read the book behind me, since Hashi-chan says no reading it in front of me."

The man shrugged and went to stand behind him as he pulled out the orange book again. Naruto knew that Madara was going to stand behind Kakashi and read the book as well.

"Pervert." He and Hashirama deadpanned at the same time.

"I'm a super pervert!" A voice shouted as a man appeared in front of them with a grin.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked coming to a stop and getting into a defensive stance. He seemed strangely familiar, like Naruto should recognize him from somewhere.

"Maa maa, It's okay Naruto-kun, that there is Jiraiya of the sannin."

Naruto blinked and then nodded, "Ah okay." it was him. His godfather, now that he looked he could see the resemblance the man had to his picture.

He remembered Tobirama grumbling about the man before, saying that his spy network was pathetic, and that the man mostly perved on woman and wrote the trash he called literature. When Sarutobi found out just how little Jiraiya's information was compared with Naruto he was greatly upset. And then of course they had told him he was his godfather.

Adopting a more Madara like posturing he crossed his arms, "So you are the pathetic supposed spymaster. What a joke."

Madara raised an eyebrow and smirked at him, "Ha! You knew exactly what I was going to say." Naruto just smirked.

Jiraiya blinked, "Pathetic spymaster?" He repeated with a twitch.

"Yep our little Naru-chan is a much better spymaster!" Hashirama chirped, not that Jiraiya could hear him.

"Of course," Kakashi stated with a shrug, "Sandaime-sama has found a new spymaster who provides better information and is a lot faster than your system."

He said that while flipping through Icha Icha.

"I see." Jiraiya stated, his voice seemed oddly dead sounding.

"This is old news by now, though only a few people are aware of the fact, and even fewer know who it is." Kakashi said idly.

"Oh… what are you doing out here anyways, especially with the brat?"

"Why does everyone call me a brat? Anyways I'm making my yearly trip to Iwa."

Jiraiya looked like he was constipated as his face got a weird look. "You are going to Iwa?" He choked out.

"Yes. It's my yearly trip, this is my second year doing it."

"You?"

Naruto wondered why the man couldn't comprehend that simple fact.

Adopting his tobirama stance and posture he looked down at the man, well up at him, but still. "Is it really so hard to comprehend that someone wants to go to another village?" He questioned.

Madara facepalmes, "And now you predicted what Tobirama would say down to a T."

Hashirama nodded in agreement.

Jiraiya twitched. "Am I really that out of the loop?" he murmured to himself.

"Yes, now if you will excuse us we need to continue on our journey." Naruto stated as he smiled brightly his posture relaxing into the more friendly posture Hashirama held himself.

"That… that is actually kinda creepy that he can mimic us so well." Hashirama whispered to Madara.

"Come on Kaka-chan! Forward to Iwa!" Naruto cheered jumping forward amongst the branches.

The white haired man rolled his eye but followed after him reading his book. "Jiraiya is following us. He is higher up in the branches above you." Madara stated.

"So Toad-sannin why are you following us?" He asked looking up, he couldn't see the man but he trusted his shimmers.

The Sannin dropped down next to him hoping next to him. "Iwa is dangerous territory, I don't know what my sensei was thinking letting you come with only one guard, so I will valiantly offer my assistance."

Naruto scoffed, "Whatever, just do not get in my way." He stated.

"Do you have multiple personality disorder or something kid?"

"Nah, he just likes to act like his favorite people would." Kakashi answered.

"Oh?"

Neither of them answered him. "Say brat, what is your name?"

"You know who I am, otherwise you would not act so frantic about me going to Iwa, especially since you are out of the loop."

"I'm really starting to not like you brat."

"And I really do not like you." Naruto retorted.

The man blinked. "Jeez, lighten up kid, what did I do to offend you so much?"

"Oh let us see shall we?" Naruto stated stopping and turning to the man glaring at him viciously, Jiraiya flinched, "You run away from your duties as my godfather, with a flimsy excuse that you need to uphold your spy network, a network which is pathetic and majorly behind on any of the intel it gets. You instead choose to spend your time perving on woman and writing that porn you try and pass off as literature and not once do you visit me. Not once have you even sent me a gift on my birthday or for christmas. So what did you do to offend me? You were a crappy godfather. Where were you when the villagers avoided me? Where were you when they called me a demon for the burden I carry? Where were you when a drunk villager stabbed my eyes? Where the hell were you when I got kidnapped. Tell me Jiraiya. Where were you?!" Naruto spat out. There was a silence before he continued on, "you were perving on woman writing those stupid books." After he spat all of that out he clenched his mouth shut, he hadn't meant to say some of that stuff.

Jiraiya stared in shock.

"Let's go Kakashi." Naruto stated turning away from the man.

A few minutes later Kakashi jumped to the same branch as him, his book put away. "Maa maa, wasn't that a bit harsh Naruto?"

"No." Naruto stated flatly, "To harsh would be letting Dara-chan verbally rip into him. And Hashi-chan, when we learned about him, and that he was my godfather… they were pissed."

"I see." Kakashi said.

"Hey Dara-chan." Hashirama started dodging a fireball Madara sent towards him, "Why do you let Naru-chan call you Dara-chan, but not me?"

Madara rolled his eyes, "For one because he uses it so he is not throwing my name about where that perv can hear since he is still following us."

Naruto twitched. 'Toad is still following us.' Naruto subtly signed to Kakashi.

"If you are going to follow us you don't have to hide it." Kakashi called out lazily.

Jiraiya came from the side. "How did you two know I was there"

Neither answered him.

"I'm sorry Naruto." Jiraiya apologized.

"Make him sweat, if you don't talk to him at all and Ignore him he will become more and more desperate to get you to forgive him, you might get something out of it." Hashirama suggested for once being a bit mean.

Madara nodded in agreement.

"Hey Kakashi, let's kick up the pace a bit, low chunin."

Kakashi nodded and Naruto took off pushing his chakra into his legs. Over the next five days Jiraiya tried to talk with him, but Naruto just ignored him. Though he happily talked with Kakashi. They even played a few rounds of Janken, though apparently Jiraiya hated the game. When Naruto had heard that he had actually stared at the man in horror. He shook his head, he could not accept the man if he didn't like Janken. Jiraiya tried apologizing, he tried to ask him about some of the stuff he had mentioned. Naruto could see that Kakashi wanted to ask about it as well, but he didn't.

When they finally got into Iwa territory Naruto put on his Iwa headband. Jiraiya twitched. Kakashi rolled his eyes, Naruto had told him one night in a the anbu sign language after jiraiya had fallen asleep, since he had Jiraiya to be his victim he told Kakashi what to expect.

He got to the gates and was waved in, "This man is with me,as my guard." Naruto pointed to Kakashi. "I don't care about the other man. He hates Janken." Naruto stated shaking his head.

Everyone within hearing distance turned to see who Naruto was pointing at. Naruto smirked, Jiraiya would not have a pleasant time.

"Lets go Kaka-chan." Naruto stated as he turned and walked away. The guards had allowed Kakashi through hearing that he was Naruto's guard. They started hassiling Jiraiya.

"Maa maa, that was mean." Kakashi stated lightly.

"So?"

"I approve" The man said giving an eye smile.

"I knew I liked you." Naruto stated happily. Madara gave a nod of approval.

Let it be said that Kakashi was vicious to those who hurt the people he cared about.

"To Onoki-oji-san's office!"

The two made there way to the office, Naruto burst in with a grin, "Hey!" He greeted throwing himself onto the chair.

"Brat." Onoki grunted in greeting still doing paperwork.

"I'm so going to crush you in the tournament this year, but I managed to acquire a stalker on my way here, Jiraiya of the sannin… and get this he hates Janken." Naruto stated viciously. He was going to make Jiraiya suffer.

Onoki looked up. "I see, and Jiraiya was the teacher of that blasted Namikaze." The old man cackled. "So why are you making him suffer?"

Naruto scowled, "He was supposed to be my godfather, he didn't even send me a gift or anything. Instead choosing to perv on woman than to do his duties."

Onoki gave a nod, "Alright well the hotel is expecting you," he stated, "And I'm going to crush you this year brat."

"Ha you wish old man!" Naruto scoffed with a grin.

A knock at the door came and Onoki called the man in, it was unsurprisingly Jiraiya.

"What can I do for you Jiraiya of the Sannin." Onoki questioned flatly.

"I'm just here as one of this brat's guard."

Naruto scoffed.

"That is unusual, Naruto only had one guard last year." Onoki stated.

"The toad pervert invited himself along Oji-san." Naruto whined glaring at the man.

Jiraiya gaped.

"I see, well only one guard is allowed into the tournament halls, I assume it is going to be Kakashi of the Sharingan."

Naruto nodded, "Yep!"

Onoki glared at Jiraiya, "We don't appreciate you stalking one of our honorary shinobi. Especially since you were the teacher of that blasted Namikaze." He grouched.

Jiraiya twitched.

The door was thrown open and two people burst in, "Old man!" They called out.

Naruto turned and beamed when he saw it was Deidara and Kurotsuchi. "You are here!" They cheered.

"I have been saving up money to buy another pound of the clay from you!" Deidara stated bouncing around, "It has been a lifesaver!"

Naruto beamed, "I'm going to beat you and the old man in the tournament!" Kurotsuchi declared with a grin.

"Tournament? You guys keep mentioning this, what is it."

"Iwa secret." Onoki stated flatly. "Kids this is the sensei of the blasted Namikaze, even has the same views as him."

The two kids looked properly horrified. "Come on Naruto-kun! Let's get away from him." Kurotsuchi stated grabbing him and dragging him away.

Naruto grinned and the trio ran off, gossiping about Jiraiya with other kids who took off to spread the word. Jiraiya hated Janken.

He and his two friends spent the rest of the day together, sparring and training mostly until night had fallen, the group ate at a nice restaurant. Jiraiya had found them after a few hours, he seemed disgruntled. Kakashi just meandered behind the group reading Icha Icha.

Naruto went to the hotel and checked in the receptiones being really helpful as he got his room key. Naruto smiled and went to the room, throwing himself on the comfortable bed he sighed in replacement, he loved coming to Iwa.

The young boy fell asleep with a smile on his face.

 **A/N: Here ya go! hope you enjoy. Only ten chapters left until part one is over with.**


	20. Chapter 20

He woke up and got dressed in the formal clothes the aburame clan had gifted him. It was a high collar coat, that Madara said was in fact a light grey. On the back was the leaf emblem he usually had embroidered on all of his clothes. Hashirama told him it was a leafy green color. It came with black pants and a dark orangish red shirt. Again color information provided by the shimmers. Then he did his hair with Madara's help, who could be such a girl when it came to hair. Seriously the man would sometimes spend an hour or more, when he didn't think anybody was watching, trying to fix his hair in the mirror.

Naruto exited out of his room and down to the lobby before he saw Kakashi who was sitting on a couch reading his book. The man got up and fell in step behind him, as soon as they walked out of the building Jiraiya appeared. They went to the stadium and Naruto and Kakashi were allowed in while Jiraiya was blocked.

"Finally." Naruto muttered.

"Hmpf, indeed. Now we can begin the real fun." Onoki stated making a beeline for him.

"You bet, I've hold this title for two years now old man, I'm not letting you have it back." Naruto grinned.

"Well let's make a new wajer this year, you lose one hand and you have to forfeit."

"You only say that because you know that it would take a miracle to get me to even lose one hand." Naruto said rolling his eyes.

Onoki grumbled but didn't deny it, "If you win, I'll give you a jutsu."

"Sounds like a deal old man."

The two shook hands. This time they were aware everyone was listening in to them.

"WOOO Go Solid Hand Naruto!" The crowd cheered.

"Reclaim your throne fallen King!" Another section of the crowd cheered.

Hours passed with the tournament going strong when finally it was time for Naruto to fight against Onoki.

"Now for the round everyone has been looking for, the Fallen King Onoki is challenging Solid Hand Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, Slayer of the Wicked Eyes for title of Janken king!" The announcer called out.

"Gah! How do you do it?" Onoki grumbled as he lost.

"It's a secret." Naruto stated as he grinned as he stood above the defeated man.

The crowd descended upon them as they sat at the table ready to sign. Eventually they were done, squad Earth came over to him. "Man! It's been awhile huh Naruto-kun, I missed the tournament last year due to a mission, but I'm glad I could see it this year" a woman greeted, naruto blinked trying to remember her name. He knew she was the woman who kidnapped him...

"Thats Chikyu," Madara reminded him.

He beamed, "Hey Chikyu!"

She grinned, "The boys and I were about to go to the hot springs, want to come?" Asking him Onoki, Deidara, and Kurotsuchi.

"Sure." Naruto agreed, seconds later he was swept up by Asubirudo who placed him on his shoulder.

They exited the stadium amongst cheers. They went to the hotsprings where Naruto and the other guys relaxed on one side with Chikyu and Kurotsuchi on the other side. After awhile of relaxing in the hot water, only interrupted once by Jiraiya giggling loudly and the woman invoking there womanly wrath on him. Anyways after that interrupt the group went to a nice restaurant and ate a large dinner. Jiraiya unfourntalty joined them which turned the affair more quiet, none of them were going to tell him what the tournament was about.

"Hey Naruto! Here's the money, I'll bring the clay tomorrow so you can make the good stuff." deidara said in a dreamy voice his eyes lighting up in pyromaniac glee.

"Of course, say Oji-san, is there a place where I can test out a larger explosive nearby? I want to know just how big the explosion can get."

Deidara looked at him in wonder, "Sorry Deidara, but Jiji has already banned me from selling this, he wouldn't even let me test it in one of the training fields. Speaking of which tell me tomorrow if you were able to incorporate some of my ideas from last year."

The boy pouted but shrugged. "Good Deidara doesn't need anything stronger than what he has, explosions are not art. But yeah we have a training field a few miles away from the city which is mostly used for explosions or the testing of any dangerous techniques." Onoki stated.

They finished dinner and Naruto returned to the hotel, after running from fangirls, and fell asleep dreaming of white hot explosions.

He woke up and went to find Deidara, Kakashi and Jiraiya falling in step behind him.

With Hashirama finding the boy's chakra they found him eating some Bakudan. Naruto joined him and then the two boys left to go to the explosive field. Onoki came up to them. "I don't trust his reactions to be fast enough if the explosion ends up bigger than expected." Onoki grumbled glaring at Jiraiya. Then he turned to Kakashi, "I Don't know if the brat told you what happened the first time he used his chakra mutation to make the explosive, but I'm not risking them being injured by us being underprepared so when we get there activate that sharingan of yours."

Kakashi dipped his head slightly in acknowledgment.

The group of five arrived at the training field. "Kaka-chan make sure that the toad doesn't do anything foolish." Naruto called out to him.

Kakashi gave him a thumbs up.

Naruto took out a small marble size of clay, "Deidara when I first did this, I put the smallest amount of chakra I could into it… now… I'm going to put a huge chunk of that destructive chakra in this small piece." He stated giggling manically.

It was okay though, because Deidara was right there with him.

Going into his mindscape he and the fox shared similar manically grins for the destruction they were about to cause. " **Let's do this brat!** " The fox stated.

Naruto opened his eyes and felt the chakra flow into the little lump of chakra. Slowly he watched the clump change from a whitish grey into a darker shade of grey.

Glancing at Jiraiya he saw that he man was too shocked to do anything to interrupt the process. " **Done.** " The fox said wiggling its tails happily.

Naruto placed the little thing down on the ground then he retreated far away, once he felt he was a safe distance away he backed away another few hundred feet. The rest of the group followed him nodding at the others he formed some hand signs and did the Doton jutsu to give them a high aerial view, and as a kind of showing off to Onoki.

"Not bad." Onoki stated.

"Ready." Naruto stated.

Kakashi lifted up his headband.

"Alright let's see this show!" Deidara cheered.

Naruto held up his hands, "Katsu!" He shouted.

A second passed and Jiraiya scoffed. And then…

BOOM!

The group was luckily far enough away as the blast made a five foot deep crater straight through solid rock and it was ten feet round. They could see that the rock at the side was actually liquefied and slowly melting down to the bottom.

He and Deidara grinned at each other and Madara cackled in the background, Hashirama stood as far away from as he could.

"Art is an explosion,un!" Deidara crowed.

"Speaking of art, have you been able to incorporate any of the ideas I suggested last year?" Naruto asked as he ended the jutsu lowering them to the ground.

Onoki snorted.

"Yeah! I've figured out how to change the color of the explosion! I have only figured out how to do one color at a time so far… As for the shapes I'm still working on it as well…" Deidara said.

"I want to see!" Madara stated beaming manically,looking every bit as crazy as the history books made.

"Would you mind showing us?" Kakashi asked before Naruto had a chance to make the request.

"Sure no problem." Deidara pulled out a few lumps of clay that naruto could see where varying shades of grey.

He tossed and exploded them, the explosions were relatively small, and though Naruto was unable to see the colors, he could tell they were different from the varying shades of grey.

Onoki shook his head and left.

Naruto noticed the boy watch from the corner of his eye as Onoki left, Deidara clenched his fist. Naruto placed his hand on the older boy's shoulder and smiled, "That was so cool, dattebayo! I may not be able to see colors, but the explosions were varying shades of grey, man I wish I could see the colors! I bet it would be very artistic!" Naruto rambled to the other boy.

Deidara grinned, "Of course it's artistic! The fleeting moment of the explosion, the quick burst of color… its art, un!"

Naruto and Madara nodded rapidly paying rapt attention. Inside of it's kage Kurama was also nodding. " **This is a wise fleshbag indeed!** "

The four pyromaniacs enjoyed a few more hours of explosions. Kakashi continued reading his Icha Icha. And Jiraiya… well… he was just trying to stay alive from the two boys throwing small explosions at him.

He volunteered. At least Madara said he did.

Naruto trusted Madara, especially since Hashirama backed him up.

Who was he to disagree with two of the founders.

It was completely inconsequential when Jiraiya couldn't see the shimmers, nor even know of their existence.

(Back in Konoha the third sighed and banged his head. The second was frowning and he muttered, "Why do I feel like I am missing someone receiving some well deserved punishment?")

The two boys cackled as they sent there low yield explosives at the toad sage who was dodging them amidst trying to get the boys to stop. They didn't, at least not until there low yield explosives ran out.

It was a perfectly good waste of clay. Eventually Onoki came back with a scroll. He tossed it to Naruto, "Here's your jutsu brat."

Forming the bird hand sign he smirked and said, "Doton: Falling Earth Spears"

Big spears of rock suddenly came out of the ground.

"Cool!" Naruto stated and opened the scroll to start learning the Jutsu.

The rest of the day was spent with Deidara trying to figure out how to shape his explosions once they go off. Kakashi watched with interest as the two boys practiced. "Naruto-kun, when your doing the jutsu try to mold your chakra into spikes. Deidara-san, what do you know about Shape transformation?"

"Not much." Deidara answered.

"Well, Shape transformation is an advance form of Chakra control, it involves changing the form and movement of chakra, which allows you to modify the size range and purpose of a technique, so if you learn how utilize shape transformation then you should be able to use it to change your shape of the chakra."

The boy's eyes widened, "How do I learn shape transformation?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, "Ah, I can't help with that, sorry, each person usually learn it in there own way, though clans have similar styles."

"I see! Thank you Kakashi-san!" Deidara said bowing politely.

Then he turned back to his clay and started fidgeting with it bringing out a set of sculpting tools as he stuck his tongue out, obviously thinking.

Naruto was working on his Jutsu and was now making a bit of progress on it.

The day came to an end and Naruto went to sleep. The next day he got up and checked out of the hotel. After having to run away from the fangirls once more he made his way to the front gate. His friends came to say goodbye to him as well as Onoki.

"I'll beat you next year brat." Onoki stated with a smirk.

"Keep dreaming old man." Naruto retorted smirking back.

"And you toad sannin, don't return, ever. We don't take kindly to you and that blasted Namikaze student of yours wicked ways."

Jiraiya twitched, not so subtly looking at Naruto.

"At least that blasted Namikaze's son here doesn't follow his and yours wicked evil ways." Onoki stated.

Jiraiya gaped.

"What you thought that they didn't know of my heritage?" Naruto asked giving Uchiha Expression #7 'Are really that much of an idiot?'

The man pouted.

The trio left and started the trip back to Konoha, Naruto ignoring all attempts of conversation Jiraiya tried to start. After a day of traveling Naruto removed the Iwa headband storing it away in one of the many sealing scrolls he had. Four days after that they arrived back at Konoha.

OoOoO- Jiraiya -OoOoO

He looked at his student's son back. He had no idea what to think of Naruto. The boy seemed to hate him, and well he could understand it, he hadn't been there for him at all, he had yet to even give the boy a gift. He had been planning to send the boy a gift once he got older…

" _Where were you when a drunk villager stabbed my eyes? Where the hell were you when I got kidnapped?"_ Naruto's words echoed in his mind.

He had tried to learn more about what he meant by that, but the boy was tight like a clam. Kakashi didn't know anything about Naruto's eyes, but he did say that a couple years ago Naruto got kidnapped by Iwa, and then Kumo, where he learned of his heritage and his burden. When he came back he called the kidnapping experience a vacation. Then there was that gourd on his back, Jiraiya felt as if he should recognize where it was from, but he couldn't.

" _You run away from your duties as my godfather, with a flimsy excuse that you need to uphold your spy network, a network which is pathetic and majorly behind on any of the intel it gets. You instead choose to spend your time perving on woman and writing that porn you try and pass off as literature and not once do you visit me_." The boys words floated through his head as he watched the back of Minato's son. He could almost see Minato staring at him with disapproving eyes.

He had though his spy network was pretty good, but Naruto was proof that he was behind, to haven't even gotten wind that Naruto had been kidnapped, nor the fact that he was apparently some kind of famous champion in Iwa… it was inexcusable.

" _Of course, Sandaime-sama has found a new spymaster who provides better information and is a lot faster than your system."_

His own sensei had apparently replaced him. Who could be better than than him!? Looks like he was out of his job then. They arrived at the village gates and, they were welcomed back. It was once they were inside that Jiraiya felt as if he had been slapped in the face with a rotten fish. The villagers were glaring at Naruto and they avoided him, purposely going out of there way to stay away from him. Compared to Iwa… he could see why Naruto loved the village hidden in the stones. There he was treated like a normal person, actually he was more of treated like a hero there in Iwa, even despite being the son of Minato.

Here, in Konoha, his own home he was treated as the demon he carried.

" _You were a crappy godfather. Where were you when the villagers avoided me? Where were you when they called me a demon for the burden I carry?_ "

He had thought that it was only a few villagers, just enough for the young boy to notice… not every single civilian they came across. He couldn't find one villager treating Naruto like the hero he was. Minato's last wish had been failed, it had been spat upon and trashed by the village who loved him.

Kakashi had told him about Naruto's choice to keep his heritage a secret, about his dream of becoming recognized by the village for his own talents and strength, and to become Hokage. He could respect that, but seeing how the villagers treated his student's son…. It was despicable.

But, what he had done was worse. It was his duty to take care of Naruto, to be there for him, and he had failed.

" _Where were you?!_ " Repeated in his head.

'I was perving on women… writing porn.' He thought to himself in shame.

Kakashi's famous saying came to mind, "Those who abandon the mission are scum, those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum." What would that make him then, someone who had abandoned family?

The only thing he could do was beg the boy for forgiveness and try to be the godfather he should have been. 'Naruto, I promise you, I won't let you down again.' He promised in his head as they arrived at the Hokage tower.

 **A/N: I forgot to update yesterday I think... whoops, blame assassins creed. I also have a new story idea that I may or may not actually do. anyways hope you enjoy!**


	21. Chapter 21

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

They arrived back in Konoha and made there way to the Hokage tower. Naruto burst in the room and blinked when he realized that someone else was in the room then he realized it was Fugaku.

"Ah Naruto-san, I see you have returned from your trip. How was the tournament this year?" Fugaku asked.

"It was awesome! Man I defeated Oji-san again, and Deidara-kun, you remember him yeah?" Fugaku gave a nod, "Well he has been working really hard on his art and has added colors! I wish I could see them! Oh! I also got to test my new One tail marble It completely decimated the ground it was on! The crater it made was like 5 feet deep and ten feet wide, and the walls of the crater were melting!" Naruto Rambled on excited.

"Impressive, I might have to buy some of those marbles from you, they could be useful in a pinch." Fugaku mused.

"Just don't be within a hundred and twenty feet of them." Kakashi warned. "Naruto only mentioned the aftermath of the direct site, if it had been a forest the trees in a fifty foot radius would be ash, and up to about a hundred and twenty feet they would be burning.

Fugaku nodded, "I shall arrange a meeting with you later so we can discuss price on those beads, I will be my own negotiator if you would like to find someone negotiate for you."

"Of course." Naruto said.

"I see you have also brought back my student." Sarutobi stated looking at Jiraiya who was sulking in the corner.

"We unfortunately came across him on our way to Iwa." Naruto grouched turning away from Jiraiya.

"I'm sorry! Please forgive me Naruto." Jiraiya once more pleaded.

"No."

"I see how was this year's tournament?"

"I won! As expected." Naruto said with a smirk.

"What was the tournament?"

"Not telling." Naruto told him with a grin.

"Kakashi?"

"Hm did you say something?" The man asked his nose in his book.

"Jiraiya?" Sarutobi asked hopefully.

"I don't know what it was they wouldn't let me in, infact Iwa now hates me almost as much as they hated Minato, they only allowed me to stay because I was guarding Naruto, who they adore… and I don't get it! How can they adore Naruto who is blood related to Minato, but hate me and my only relationship is being his teacher!" Jiraiya ranted throwing his hands up.

"I don't know but I suspect Naruto knows the answer, and possibly Kakashi and Fugaku."

"Huh why would he know?" Jiraiya asked pointing to the clan head.

Fugaku sneered at him.

"Fugaku was my guard last year."

Sarutobi sighed, "Next year I'm sending Guy with you… he will tell me what the tournament is."

("I am sorry Hokage-sama! I can not do something as unyouthful as tell you what the tournament is! As my punishment I will run 1000 laps around Konoha!")

"Alright your dismissed Naruto, Kakashi I expect your report tomorrow, Fugaku thank you for informing me of your thoughts on the matter we discussed."

Naruto tilted his head at the last bit curious.

"It is nothing of importance child. Now you have training to do." Tobirama stated waving him off.

"Bye jiji! I'll talk with you later."

Naruto left and his first destination was Ichiraku's ramen. It was time to eat the food of the gods.

He sat down and started eating the food. A few minutes later Shino appeared. "Hey Shino!"

"Hello Naruto, my hive informed me that you returned."

"I figured, I don't understand how you can understand them though…"

Shino shrugged, "I have lived with them my entire life, understanding them is second nature to me, I am sure that you will eventually be able to understand them as well as a born Aburmane can."

Naruto nodded.

The two boys chatted catching up since Naruto left for vacation. Eventually Naruto left and made his way to his house, passing by the academy on his way.

It was as he passed by where he heard something. Looking up he spotted a girl being dragged by three older as she was crying he chose to follow them. He got there and saw them tormenting her.

"Hey! What do you jerks think your doing?" He asked them.

They turned around and sneered, "Oh it's that kid." One of them muttered.

"Leave the girl alone."

"Or what? You can't do anything."

Naruto jumped using his chakra and landed behind the three kids and in front of the girl. Feeling his connection to the hive he requested them to come out.

The three boys backed up there eyes going wide.

Naruto sent his bugs to drain them of their chakra until they passed out. And then he had his colony return to him.

"Are you okay?" He turned smiling at her as he offered his hand.

The girl gave a small nod, "Y-yes." She said quietly as Naruto helped her up.

"That's good."

"Hinata-sama!" A man called out as he appeared. Looking at the three bodies on the ground he frowned.

"What happened Hinata-sama?"

The girl looked down poking her fingers together. "Hyuga-san, I found these three surrounding Hinata-san here and being mean to her, I knocked them unconscious through use of my Bikaichu."

The man looked at him and then to Hinata who gave a small nod. "I see, thank you for your help Uzumaki-san."

Naruto gave a small bow as Madara told him it was the appropriate thing to do. Naruto then left the two Hyuga leaving as well.

Returning to his apartment he smiled. Despite the civilians being their usual selves it was good to be back. Iwa was nice, and everyone there actually happy to see him, but there was something to be said for Konoha, it was his home and he would protect it with his life. Seeing as night had now fallen he went to sleep happy.

The next day he woke up and got dressed ate breakfast and all that normal morning stuff. He spent an hour reading his sealing book before a knock came at his door. Opening it he was surprised to see the same Hyuga as yesterday. "What can I do for you Hyuga-san?" He asked politely inviting the man in, glad that his apartment was clean.

"Hiashi-sama has requested your audience." The Hyuga stated.

"Ask if it is a formal audience or not." Madara told him.

"Is this a formal audience?"

"Semi-formal." The Hyuga told him.

"When is my presence expected?"

"Within the hour if that is acceptable."

"It is, let me change into something more fitting and you can lead me if you wish."

The man gave a small nod of his head and left. Naruto assumed he was waiting outside.

Grabbing his new coat he choose jeans instead of pants and the redish orange shirt the Aburmane had given with the coat. Raising an eyebrow at Madara and Hashirama they gave their approval and Naruto walked out.

The Hyuga led him through the streets and they went to the Hyuga clan grounds. Naruto was led forwards towards the most prominent building. Once inside he was sat down at a living room. The Hyuga walked further in.

Five minutes pass before two figures come in, one is the Hyuga who had led him here, and the other was a man with long hair that was a darker shade of grey. This must be Hiashi, and judging from how deep the other Hyuga bowed before leaving he suspected that the man was clan head.

"Uzumaki-san." The man greeted.

"Hiashi-sama." Naruto replied evenly. He was now thankful for every lesson Tobirama had drilled into him about politics and clans. Fugaku had been a bit more lax, but Naruto knew the Hyuga were going to be more political.

The man sat across from him and with a signal tea appeared and was served. Naruto waited until Hiashi took the first sip of tea before sipping his own. "How are you doing Uzumaki-san?"

"I am doing well Hyuga-sama, yourself?"

"I am fortunate that my clan is doing well off." The man replied.

"That is good." Naruto replied back sipping at the tea again.

"How is the academy?" The man asked.

Naruto inwardly sighed at the polite talk, he would much rather they just cut to the chase of why he was summoned.

"It is okay."

"I heard that you have some of the lowest grades in your class."

"I tend to forget to turn the assignments in, I find that most of the information they teach is more orientated for those students who will become civilians."

"I see, you would go straight to the ninja academy if you could?"

"Ah, I would, if that would not make me seem like a prodigy of sorts. I have no inclination to be brought up in such light."

"Interesting," Hiashi stated. He sipped his tea, "I would like to know why you helped Hinata."

And now they were getting to the matter at hand. "I do not like bullies, I'm sure you can understand why, when I saw them picking on her I decided to stop it."

Hiashi frowned a bit, "But you are allied with the Uchiha clan."

"The Aburmane as well, so what of it?" Naruto questioned.

"My apologies, I assumed that as an ally of the Uchiha you would follow the clan rivalries."

'Clan rivalries?' Naruto wondered in his mind, he filed that away to ask Tobirama later.

"It is fine Hyuga-sama, I am not interested in carrying forth any clan rivalries, I only wish to be neutral, or have a positive relation with the clan's."

"Very well, thank you then for helping my daughter."

Naruto bowed his head.

"Thank you for coming Uzumaki-san." The man said as he got up

"It is no problem Hyuga-sama, thank you for the tea, it was an honor meeting you." Naruto replied as he stood up and with a formal bow he left. After exiting out of the Hyuga clan he sighed his shoulders sagging. Now he could go read his book again.

 **A/n: Sorry for the short chapter! This should be the only short chapter under 2,000 words I believe. Enjoy!**


	22. Chapter 22

The next year passed rather peacefully. He had eventually forgiven Jiraiya and the man was trying his best to make up for his mistakes. And Jiraiya never asked him about his slip up, saying that Naruto could tell him when he wanted. The man wanted Naruto to live with him, but he didn't want to since it would make it harder to chat with his true family, the shimmers. The man took to training him in the sealing arts seeing that Naruto was learning it. Jiraiya did learn that Naruto was getting training from the Anbu, and that he was a lot more advanced than a normal genin. Though he wasn't quite ready for the duties of a chunin. His skill's may be at that level, but they didn't think he could handle the leadership duties of a chunin yet. Under Jiraiya's teaching his sealing ability raised up quite a bit.

On saturdays Tobirama would always come over and have him work on the three-step while teaching Naruto politics, this was also helping Naruto learn how to make seals while focusing on something else. Some ninja couldn't focus on hand signs and what the opponent is saying at the same time. Eventually Tobirama told him of a more advanced chakra control. A shell of chakra was formed around a liquid, at first Naruto had to keep in contact like the ball, but eventually he mastered it. Even being able to form multiple of them easily.

When he mastered it he decided it was time for a prank, he bought a ton of paint and made the chakra balls around the paint. Then he went to the top of the hokage tower with the paints. Inu, who was his guard at the moment helped him.

The two threw all of the paint balls the extreme force of contact bursting them as they decorated the nearby buildings, and Kakashi decorated the not so near. Even managing to hit the Hokage monument. Eventually the two ran out of paint and they fled the scene of the crime before everyone woke up to start the day.

Other than pulling a few pranks his training was going well, Madara and Hashirama continued teaching him taijutsu. Madara finally taught him the great fireball jutsu, and Hashirama taught him a wind jutsu, the air bullet jutsu. Hashirama also started him on learning to the sensory, Madara also decided to teach Naruto how to wield a gunbai, which with a request to the Hokage they had one made since it wasn't a common weapon and none of the shops sold it. For some reason the Hokage banged his head on the desk, muttering something under his breath that they couldn't make out. Tobirama just shook his head when Naruto made the request.

As for his training with the Commander he had finished the mental process training, he was now able to see and process the Anbu speed conversations. His speed also improved, without his weights and with chakra he could move at Anbu speed. Without his weights and without chakra it was low jounin, with his weights and with chakra he could move at high chunin speed, with his weights and without his chakra then he moved at low to average chunin speeds. Now that he was done with the mental process training, with the side effect being speed, then he could move on to the next training which was learning how to deliver information and how to signal to other Anbu. As the year finished he completed his Anbu training in information delivery.

Other than his training there was his personal life, the academy was the same boring stuff as ever. But the good thing was that it was the final year of the merged academy, next year they would be in the Shinobi academy. He and Shino always spent recess together, Hinata joining them after she worked up the nerve to ask. The trio became good friends. Naruto also finally told Shino about Kurama, and about his parents. He still wasn't quite ready to tell him about the shimmers.

He also noticed that the hyuga changed regarding him, whereas before they ignored him and some sneered at him, now they were giving him polite nods or greeting him. It was weird, but Madara told him it was because of his talk with Hiashi. Now that Naruto had shown that he was actually playing the political game than Hiashi wanted to keep his options open regarding him. Though the man made no further moves.

As for his colony they were slowly increasing in size and actually during one of his spars with Shino he and Kurama learned something they could do. They could have the bugs form into the shape of a small fox and the bikaichu could apply an illusion to make it look like a fox. That much was obvious and easy, but it was when they applied Kurama's chakra to them when they held the shape that things became surprising.

" **I'm outside?** " Kurama questioned in shock looking around.

Shino turned towards them and raised an eyebrow.

"This is interesting." Naruto stated.

" **Indeed, to think that these bugs of yours can hold my conscious…** " Kurama muttered walking around.

"So this is Kurama." Shino stated. "I am Shino, it is interesting to meet you."

" **Yeah yeah, bow before me meatbag! I am the greatest of the Biju, the almighty Kyuubi! And I am sorta free!** " The miniature biju stated pompously.

Naruto chuckled as he watched Kurama bound around the clearing. " **Say brat can we go cause some panic amongst the civilians? Please?** "

"No. I don't need them to hate me anymore than they already do."

" **Bah! Boring, ohh! Lets play with some bombs I want to see them for myself.** " Kurama stated leaping over to him.

"Sure," Naruto agreed pulling out some of the low yield explosives. The trio spent an hour like that playing with explosives and entertaining the hyper biju. On note of Kurama Naruto's one tail cloak was coming along well, though he still got angry relatively quick and so he worked on being able to control his emotions better so he didn't lose control.

But soon the academy came to an end and it was Naruto's favorite month of the year, december. Naruto was assigned Might Guy as his guard and the duo set out. Unlike Previous trips Guy encouraged him to push himself as they ran to Iwa. Naruto had informed guy of what to suspect instead of leaving it as a surprise.

The duo arrived within four days, Naruto was exhausted since Guy said that they should only stop running to sleep. The guards looked at him as he collapsed, "That was tiring." he grumbled from the ground.

The guards seeing he was uninjured snickered at his plight. "If you don't get up soon perhaps we should alert your fangirls that you're-" Naruto was gone before the guard could finish the sentence.

Naruto made his way to Onoki's office grinning as people greeted him. Though a fangirl hoard did start and Naruto had to run once more. It was an exhausted boy that came into Onoki's office and collapse on the chair.

"Brat, you look tired."

"His youthful energy has been put to the test on the most youthful run here!" Guy shouted with a thumbs up.

"What he said." The exhausted nine year old grumbled.

"You got another new guard brat."

"Yeah Jiji keeps trying to learn what the tournament is." Naruto looked at Guy and stated. "Which would be most unyouthful to tell him what the tournament is."

Guy frowned at that. Anyways Naruto went to the hotel checked in and then his brain checked out as he fell asleep. The next day he spent with Deidara, the two boys messing around with explosions. Deidara had learned how to create basic shapes with his explosions, and had figured out how to make his explosions multiple colors, through the colors ran together. Naruto gave him a small hardened marble of chakra that was on a string, he had one himself hanging on his wrist. "For emergencies only." Naruto told him with a grin.

He knew that the bead was a bright angry red from what Madara had told him. The bead was a one-tailed marble explosion. He wasn't allowed to sell them to Deidara, but giving him one as a gift. Well Jiji never said anything against it.

The Next day Naruto had another free day which he spent actually exploring Iwa, Deidara and Kurotsuchi being his tour guides. Naruto knew a few streets, the ones he commonly used on his other vacations but the rest of Iwa was a mystery.

Finally it was time for the tournament in which Naruto dominated, Onoki of course made his standard bet, If Naruto lost one hand he would have to forfeit, if not then he won a jutsu. Which when he did win was the rock clone technique.

After signing they relaxed at the hotsprings and then Naruto went to sleep. The next day he spent with Deidara and Kurotsuchi, sparring and training. He was able to beat Kurotsuchi in the taijutsu only spar, and put up a decent fight against Deidara though the older boy still one. Experience mattered afterall. Anyways soon it was time to head back and Naruto kept mentioning to guy how unyouthful it would be to tell the hokage, and that if guy did tell the Hokage than he was more unyouthful than Kakashi, and that really seemed to do the trick.

Naruto returned to Konoha and they reported to the Hokage. As Jiraiya came to teach him more seals Naruto smiled, life was good.

 **A/n: Here is another chapter for you guys! Enjoy!**


	23. Chapter 23

Naruto jumped up excited, today was the first day of the ninja academy. He got dressed putting on his clothes proudly wearing the leaf sign on his back and the uzumaki spiral on his shoulder. His Bikaichu formed the small Kurama who grumbled, " **Calm down, jeez you got me soaked with that damn water.** "

"Sorry Kurama, if I knew what caused the water I would fix it, or if I could I would change your cage to something more comfortable."

" **Yeah I know you would brat.** "

The Biju jumped up onto his shoulder wrapping its tail around the back of Naruto's neck. Naruto wrinkled his nose as he felt the bikaichu. He still had a bit of trouble getting used to the feel of the Bikaichu on any other body part other than his hand. The cug clone may look like Kurama, but it certainly didn't feel like fur. Although the miniature kyuubi had only one tail. Naruto rolled his eyes and walked towards the academy with a hop in his step. He really was excited. Kurama grumbled as they arrived and the bugs returned to his gourd, the grumpy fox didn't want to sit around the classroom all day. Naruto sat next to Shino and Hinata, who luckily were in the same class as him.

He noticed Sasuke was also in the class, looking around he noticed an Inuzuka, a Nara, a Yamanaka, and an Akimichi. Giving a low whistle he muttered to his friends, "There are a lot of clan children in this class.

"They are not just clan children, but clan heirs with the exception of Kiba Inuzuka." Shino informed him.

"Damn, I guess there going to make the Ino-shika-cho group again."

"O-only if the kids show they can work together." Hinata stated softly.

"Interesting, what other teams do you think would be formed."

"Well either me or you will be on a tracking team with Hinata and Inuzuka-san." Sino stated.

"One team will be the highest scoring Shinobi and Kunoichi with the dead last to balance the teams."

"Maybe I shouldn't be dead last then." Naruto muttered.

Shino raised an eyebrow at him, "I had planned to be dead last so people would underestimate me."

"I see, that is a good strategy amongst those in Konoha, but it is ineffectual because people outside will be more likely to recognize you."

"Yeah, I don't know, I guess I'll just have to see how things pan out, I don't know if they will even be able to keep my attention."

Shino gave a nod.

As it turned out the academy could not hold his attention. The weeks passed and they were practicing throwing Kunai, which Naruto had learned already. He was lazing around watching his fellow students when he saw one of the girls struggling, she had medium length hair. He didn't recognize her, but he still went over. "Hey!" He greeted.

The girl blinked at him, "Hi." She replied back a bit timidly.

"What's your name, mines Naruto."

"Sakura." She replied back.

"Nice to meet you. Want to practice together?"

"Sure."

For the rest of the time they spent on Kunai throwing he helped her throw her kunai. At the end of the day she dragged him over to her parents much to the amusement of Shino and Hinata. That's when the newly blossoming friendship ended.

Her parents were civilians who didn't want there precious flower being near the demon boy. They forbid her from hanging out with him. Naruto sighed as he turned back to his friends, go figure. None of the civilian children would ever be friends with him because their parents told them he was a monster.

Anyways after that she avoided him soon becoming a fangirl of Sasuke and having a rivalry with Ino, who she used to be friends with. Anyways as for the Nara heir there was actually a rumour going on that the two were somehow related, not for their looks, but for the sheer laziness the two boys possessed. In fact Naruto and the Nara had silently challenged each other to who could be the laziest. Needless to say the academy became a very good time to sleep.

One time when he left the academy he went to go eat at Ichiraku's and the Ino-shika-cho juniors followed him. He and the Akimichi boy got into a ramen eating contest, which Naruto thoroughly won. No one could beat him at his favorite food.

The Yamanaka girl sniffed in disgust as she watched them eat. "So why did y'all follow me?"

"I want to play a match of Shoji against you." The Nara said.

"I was just following Shikamaru."

"A girl can't get to know the second cutest guy in the class?" the Yamanaka said with a grin.

Naruto twitched memories of fangirls appearing in his mind. "Sasuke-kun is obviously the cuter one between the two of you, and he is much cooler and more mysterious, plus he has such a tragic backstory…" She said her voice going dreamy.

"Although Sasuke-kun seems to dislike you." She stated turning to him a questioning look on her face.

Naruto shrugged, "We used to be friends, but he didn't like that I had Shino as my friends, he made me choose. I stuck with Shino cause we had been friends longer."

The girl nodded. "Hey what are y'alls names anyways, I know y'alls clan names… but not your first." Naruto asked after a moment of silence as he followed shikamaru to go play Shoji.

"Im Choji!" The Akimichi boy stated.

"Ino!" The Yamanaka girl stated flipping her hair.

"Shikamaru."

Finally they arrived at the Nara clan grounds and Shikamaru led him to his room. The boy pulled out his shoji board and the two boys played, Naruto learning as he played as Madara and Hashirama told him rules and suggested plays. Naruto switched between the two advices, from Madara's aggressive frontline attacks with the sneaky back pieces. And Hashirama's defensive plays with the careful taking of his opponents plays.

Shikamaru frowned as the game continued. Still he won at the end. "What strategy were you using?" The boy asked.

Naruto shrugged, "It was kinda mix between two strategies. I switched between them as I felt was needed."

The boy nodded. "We should play again."

"Sure it was fun."

A couple months later he was going to meet with Shino, his life had gotten fairly busy, with learning seals from Jiraiya, and now even Tobirama. Though Tobirama was mostly the principles and theories behind sealing while naruto was still practicing the infernal three-step. He had it down sure, he could do it perfectly without messing up. But Tobirama wanted him to be even faster at it. Madara and Hashirama continued training him in taijutsu, sensory, and the way of the gunbai.

His Anbu training, now that his information training was done the commander was teaching him the general stuff, Sarutobi didn't approve, but he could see how beneficial it was for Naruto. After all the Anbu treated him like a normal person. Which the other Anbu had learned who he was though they weren't aware of his ability. And when Danzo learned that Naruto was receiving Anbu training the man backed off of sarutobi a bit.

And his training with Kurama's physical transformation was going well, he could get the fur to sprout everywhere and half of his bones changed form to that of the fox structure. Usually it was his arms and legs, sometimes it was head and arms. Once he had sprouted a tail.

Naruto really enjoyed being the spy master, he learned lots of stuff he wouldn't otherwise be privy to and he was helping Konoha. He met with his jiji at least once a month to report what his network had found out, unless it was an emergency.

Shaking his head he continued on his way to the training field Shino had told him to meet at. They were once more going to be bug hunting, and then training a bit.

As he got closer to the training field he heard the sound of fighting, frowning he picked up his speed a bit, hearing Shino cry out in pain he ran forward. He saw Shino on the ground his hand clutching his arm to stop the bleeding.

Naruto growled as the attacker stepped forward to finish the job rushing over to his friend he pulled out a kunai and stopped the man. Emotions welled up, panic, anger and the need to protect shino. He crouched as he pulled upon the one-tail cloak. His eyes burned as if they were on fire.

The attacker cursed and turned to run. Naruto started to chase after him, 'Rip. Tear. Shred. Kill,' but he saw his guard go after the man. Naruto heard Shino whimper in pain. Managing to remain in control he deactivated the cloak he went to his friends side. Shino's kikaichu were crawling on the wound now, which meant that they were trying to pull out poison, but soon they started wobbling in there flight before he saw Shino's bugs attacking Shino.

His eyes wide he sent his bikaichu to protect Shino. Frowning he held his hands out and sent his chakra at Shino's kikaichu. The bugs sensed his chakra and turned to him. "The poison must have been designed to affect the Kikaichu." Hashirama stated looking around.

"Naruto, pull your chakra away from your eyes." Madara stated. Naruto did as the kikaichu flew towards him.

Naruto winced as the bugs started attacking him, though Kurama was healing him as much as they were biting him, it hurt, but at least they weren't further damaging Shino. As his guard was no chasing after the attacker Naruto asked Kurama to go find a medic or an Aburmane to come and help. His Bikaichu formed the clone and Kurama ran off.

A few minutes later and the fox returned riding on top of the shoulder of an Aburame. The person's eyes widened at seeing Naruto being attacked by Shino's bugs. "Shino was attacked by someone, he is being chased. But I think his blade was poisoned, when Shino's bugs come into contact with it they started attacking him. I called the kikaichu to me because of my healing factor." The Aburame nodded.

"I see, unfortunately we can't easily neutralize the poison here. I will take Shino to the hospital and you go to the main house, we have several antidotes we can try."

Naruto winced again and nodded. The fox-bug clone dissipated and his clones went to his gourd as the duo separated. He made his way to the clan grounds, avoiding the heavily populated area, and taking the roofs to quickly reach his destination.

The Aburame clan saw him and quickly led him in, Naruto reported what had happened twitching occasionally. Shibi was quick to arrive and winced at what he saw, "Follow." The man stated turning and briskly walking towards a building, naruto was led and told to sit in a room.

"Okay were going to disperse a few antidotes into the air. Hopefully one of these will do the trick to calm Shino's Kikaichu down."

They closed the room and soon Naruto heard a hissing. A few minutes later nothing seemed to happen and then he heard a whirling. That process repeated three more times before Shino's kikaichu stopped attacking. Naruto sighed in relief. The whirling happened once more and then the door opened.

Shibi came in and came over to him, "Naruto-san are you in realtivly good condition?"

"I'm fine, I'm already healed."

"It is good that you were there to help Shino, as he does not have your healing factor the damage would be much worse. I have already received word from the hospital, Shino will be fine in a few hours." Naruto sighed in relief.

"That's good to hear, and his colony?" Naruto asked looking at the kikaichu who seemed to be flying around aimlessly.

"I shall collect them and check to make sure they are fine." Shibi said raising his hands and the bugs flew into a gourd the man brought in.

"Please take care Naruto-san." Shibi stated with a nod as he left.

Naruto stood there for a moment shocked at just what had occurred frowning he made his way to the Hokage's office. Once in the room he asked, "Was Shino's attacker caught yet?"

"Not yet, he is still being pursued." The hokage said dismissing his Anbu guards.

Naruto turned to Tobirama, "I don't want him to get away. I would like to request that some shimmers also go after him, incase he manages to give the slip."

"That is a good call. Very well." Tobirama agreed with a nod.

"Naruto, did anything else happen? Did the attacker say anything?"

"Tell him you unlocked your sharingan."

"I unlocked my- wait what?!" Naruto started to repeat before he realized just what Madara had said, he whirled to the shimmer his eyes wide.

"Yes, I noticed you unlocked them when you saw Shino being attacked. That is why I told you to pull your chakra away from your eyes."

"Naruto-kun?" Sarutobi questioned.

"How could I have unlocked them though?" Naruto asked ignoring the third for a moment.

"You remember how you got your eyes correct?"

Naruto nodded.

"Orochimaru used a jutsu called the edo tensei to summon me, he merged your eyes with my edo tensei eyes. I am surprised you managed to activate them."

Naruto went pale. "You mean…"

Madara pent down to him, "Your eyes are also partially made with my eyes, but that is fine. It is not your fault for what he did." Madara spoke gently.

"Naruto-kun, what have you unlocked?" The third questioned once more.

"The Sharingan." Naruto said sitting down in the chair.

The thirds eyes went wide. "How are you able to have the sharingan?"

Naruto bit his lip, he had promised that he wouldn't mention Orochimaru to anybody, but it had been a couple years… finally the young nine year old caved.

OoOoO-Sarutobi -OoOoO

He watched as Naruto bit his lip hesitant to tell him how he

"When I was five… I had played one of my pranks, I was running away from the villagers and a chunin and decided to hide in the hokage monument since there are alot of rooms." the boy started. "I ran into one of the rooms thinking I had lost them. I looked around and spotted someone else in the room. Back then I could see colors… I don't remember much about his looks, other than he was pale with black hair and yellow slitted snake like eyes."

Hiruzen's eyes widen, surely Naruto couldn't mean Orochimaru!?

"Unfortunately for me the chunin was a sensor and had located me, I heard them come closer, I then looked for a place to hide, but the man grabbed me and used a jutsu to make us travel through the ground. Eventually we resurfaced back up. I did not know where we were at back then, so I followed him since he saved me, I remember us chatting, but I don't remember what. Eventually he pointed me to the market district and we went our separate ways."

He raised an eyebrow, wondering what his old student had been doing that he didn't try to take further advantage of Naruto, especially since it seemed they were all alone.

"I walked through the district it was late at night. I remember being shoved into a wall and a knife being held. I had been scared, so scared, the man was talking crazy, kept speaking about eyes, he held the knife to my eye, I remember trying to break free. But that had drove the knife into my eye. I froze then, in pain, in fear, I don't remember. I tried calling for help but nobody came. The man stabbed my other eye. He was about to kill me."

He stared in horror at what he was hearing.

"Suddenly the next thing I remember was that snake guy talking he told me he could give me my sight back. I agreed. He picked me up and took me somewhere. He then gave me a shot which knocked me out. I don't know what he did," Naruto paused and tilted his head a bit. "Madara says he has a bit more information."

Naruto changed his posture to stand like Madara, "I felt a tugging and when I arrived I saw that this yellow slitted eye guy was summoning me via Edo tensei. As a reincarnation I do not remember anything from my time in the spirit world. He tried taking my eye out only for it to fall apart into dust. He seemed amused by this as he watched my eye reformed. He then turned to Naruto who was on a table unconscious, I could see that his eyes were wounded. He took one of Naruto's eyes and after taking out my eye again he placed Naruto's eye into my empty eye socket, of course My eye still tried to reform and it did using the material of Naruto's eye in the process. He took the eye out and I waited for it to fall apart, the eye did not, and he placed it inside of Naruto's socket. He then repeated this process with Naruto's other eye. I choose to follow as the snake man who we later learned was named Orochimaru took Naruto to his apartment."

He looked on horrified by what he was hearing, his student had experimented on Naruto.

"That's pretty much the story jiji" Naruto told him relaxing his posture. "A month after that I started seeing a sort of shimmer in the air. And then they developed into people. You know that and the rest."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Orochimaru told me not to tell anybody about him being here." Naruto stated looking away.

"I- i see." He stated shocked, what had his student been doing in the hokage's monument? There wasn't much important up there…. Except, edo tensei. The first two hokage's bodies. Fuck.

 **A/n: Here ya go another chapter! And Naruto finally reveals how he got his eyes to the Hokage. I hope you enjoyed!**


	24. Chapter 24

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

Naruto was dismissed but he could hear the Hokage barking out orders and as he walked out tower he saw the man left towards the hokage monument with four Anbu behind him. "I wonder what that's about…" Naruto mused as he watched.

Madara and Hashirama shrugged. "Hmm I think I should go practice my chakra cloak some more I was able to be in control earlier today… but I felt like I was about to lose control."

The two shimmers nodded and Naruto after finding a secluded area changed into his Anbu clothes. Than he headed to the building and asked around for Tenzo, luckily the man was around. "Hey Tenzo-taichou, I wanted to work on my cloak some more, but I was wondering if we could get someone else to use genjutsu's on me. That way I can be as if I am actually in a battle, instead of a controlled situation."

Tenzo nodded, "That is a good idea Nomani, give me a moment to find someone who can use genjutsu's, I am not the best at them."

He left and soon came back with Hummingbird. Naruto was led to the empty room that was always used for his training. Hummingbird made a string of hand signs, Naruto activated his one tailed cloak. Soon the room warped, he was on the streets of Konoha, soon though a running figure caught his attention taking off after him he realized he was in his Anbu clothes. The runner, who he knew was fleeing from them jumped down and attacked Hinata. Naruto growled rage flashing through him as he leapt down at the attacker claws outstretched. His anger burned at him threatening to overwhelm him as the attacker threw kunai aiming for Hinata. He wanted to charge the guy attack him rip him to shreds. And he was only barely able to refrain as he knew if he did that he would leave hinata unprotected.

Soon the genjutsu ended, leaving him sweating and panting. His cloak fading away. He clenched his fist before taking a deep breath and releasing it. Calming down he looked at them, "Again please."

They nodded.

The rest of the day was spent under genjutsus, learning how to control himself even amidst a battle. This resulted in a noticeable leap in his skill controlling his emotions while under the influence of the chakra cloak.

After that day was over Naruto's life hit the fast lane, the rest of the year passed, training hard to get better, Tobirama continued his normal teaching of politics and the theory behind sealing all the while Naruto was doing the three-step, inwardly cursing tobirama as the man made him practice, and practice and practice some more. Madara taught him how to utilize the Sharingan, though Naruto was reluctant to use it. He wanted to get strong on his own strength, not by stealing others work.

Madara praised him when Naruto told him that. He said that Naruto's work motivation was good, and that if he worked hard then he would become stronger than someone who only copies a jutsu. Besides for the Sharingan training it was also working on the gunbai and the next stage of Madara's taijutsu style which utilised the visual prowess of the sharingan.

Hashirama taught him how to defend himself, and the two worked on figuring out his abilities for interacting with spirits. Since the shimmers were able to grab him and use there jutsu's through him. Though Naruto did notice it used up his chakra as well, but it only used his physical half, the shimmer providing the spiritual half. Though it took up a lot of the shimmers spiritual chakra to do so. Which led Hashirama to training himself trying to develop his spiritual chakra as well as his chakra control.

His Anbu training was going well, as he learned the basics of everything an Anbu needed to know. He fully mastered his one tail cloak by the time december came around and so long as he wasn't battling and was in a calm environment he could control the two tail cloak. But after the busy year he was ready for his vacation to Iwa. His guard this year was actually jiji's son Asuma. The two walked out the gates, "Man jiji really is trying to learn what the tournament is." Naruto commented with a grin.

"The old man muttered something about family loyalty getting the answer." Asuma informed him with a sideways glance.

"Will you inform him? I've gotten Fugaku, Kakashi and Guy to keep it secret."

"It must not be harmful then if they are willing to keep it secret." The man stated puffing out some smoke.

"Nope, it's just Iwa's tournament."

Asuma blinked, "Oh you mean there Janken tournament? I thought the old man knew about that."

Naruto cackled, "Nope he doesn't."

Asuma smirked at him, "Who am I to enlighten him to this fact them."

"Yes! Haha jiji is going to suffer another year without knowing."

("That's it! I'm sending Ibiki with you." The third said pouting after Asuma informed him that he would not tell him.)

"It's not often when I can get to one up the old man." Asuma stated. He paused before he suddenly turned to stare at Naruto. His eyes went wide and he pointed "You! You're Solid hand?! The one who overthrew Onoki!" Asuma shouted shocked.

"Yep!"

Asuma pulled out a poster, it had the back of Naruto on it with the leaf symbol. In the background it had Fugaku's shocked expression, his sharingan clear in his eyes. It also had onoki bowing down on the ground. "Please you have to sign my poster, man! I wish I had been able to see the tournament, I heard about and a friend handed me this poster. I heard it was legendary, I have to know how you do it." Asuma started speaking rapidly thrusting the poster over to Naruto. "It was one of the only reasons I accepted this mission, because we were heading to Iwa I figured I could see the tournament, but to know I'm actually guardian Solid Hand! Man know if only I knew who the underground shoji tournament leader was."

Naruto signed the poster easily, having to sign a great many posters and other memorabilia led him to quickly developing his signature. "Underground shoji tournament?" Naruto questioned. He had gotten used to the game and Shikamaru said he was pretty good compared to most of the people he faced against.

"Yeah, Konoha doesn't have an official tournament like the other four, but we have the underground shoji tournament, most aren't even aware of it, I probably shouldn't have mentioned it."

"Hmm… I play a bit of Shoji, I would be interested to learn more about it."

"Really? You any good?"

"I don't know I only ever play against a Shikamaru Nara, so I always lose. He says i'm pretty good though.

"A Nara? Yeah they are insanely good at the game, in fact the tournament is run by them." Asuma agreed as they jumped through the trees. "Hmm if a Nara says your good, you might have a chance making it past the first round, tell you what, if you can beat me in a round of Shoji I will front you for the underground tournament."

"Sounds like a deal."

The two continued their journey to Iwa, bounding over there love of games, and wind affinity. They were halfway through their journey when Naruto froze. A feeling of slime felt like it was crawling over him. "There's a filth in the area!" Hashirama stated as he and Madara stood in a defensive position around Naruto.

"What's wrong?" Asuma asked having to back up to the boy who had frozen.

Before Naruto could respond the feeling grew and coming out of the other side of the forest was this black thing, it had a faint resemblance to a human, in that it was bipedal and had two arms, but its body seemed to be bubbling and shifting. The thing looked completely black even to Naruto. The boy shifted into a defensive taijutsu stance even as Madara jumped down and attacked the thing. He watched as the two fought, the creature always moved as if in slow motion, but somehow it was always fast enough to dodge out of the way of the strikes.

Hashirama formed hand signs and wood came up and wrapped around the creature, trapping it. Madara formed his own hand sign and burnt the filth to a crisp. The battle was quick only lasting about half a minutes, but his two shimmers looked exhausted.

"Naruto!" Asuma snapped out waving his hand in front of him,

He jumped back blinking.

"What happened?"

He shook his head, "Nothing."

Asuma frowned. Luckily though he didn't question any further.

The duo continued on the road.

Finally Naruto arrived at Iwa his headband firmly in place around his neck. The guards waved him by once the saw him. Naruto made his way through the streets people smiling at seeming him, he knew that soon the fangirls would be upon him. Hurrying up a bit he managed to make it to the Tsuchikage building before the fangirls could swarm him. Barging into the old man's room he smiled, before pausing the words dying in his face as the heavy atmosphere crashed down upon him. Deidara and Onoki were glaring at each other. They turned to face him before Deidara beamed brightly, "Naruto-kun! Finally someone who understands true art!"

Naruto just grinned at the boy, "Bah! At least the brat isn't obsessed with explosions as you are. So brat, you ready to lose?"

"Ha you wish Oji-san!" Naruto told him grinning.

Asuma watched.

"So who's your guard this year? He's not going to be like last year's is he?"

"Nah, Asuma is cool."

"Actually I'm hot." Asuma stated blowing out a puff of smoke.

(Somewhere in Konoha Kurenai's eyes started twitching.)

"Do you like art?" Deidara asked looking up at the man, the thirteen year old boy grinned.

"What kind of art are you talking about?"

Naruto and Deidara shared a glance, "The only kind of art worth viewing, the beauty of which is only available for a brief second, but it's memory lasts on forever in the person who sees it. Art is an explosion! Un!/Dattebayo!" The two boys choursed

Onoki facepalmed. "Get out of my office brats, you know where your hotel is at."

The two boys grinned and jumped out the window, first they went to go have Naruto check into his apartment and then they went to the explosive training field. "Hey guess what Deidara!"

"What?"

"You know that marble from last year?"

"Yeah?"

"That is my T-1 strength, i have developed a T-2, which is stronger. I have some pre-made, jiji said that I could test them here, since any damage I caused wouldn't give him more paperwork to do."

Deidara cackled. "Let see it."

Naruto placed the marble down and the two went far away Asuma followed them confused, "Why are we going so far?"

"That explosion is made from my chakra mutation." Naruto deadpanned.

Asuma's eyes went wide. "T-2… oh that…" He paled.

"Yeah. lets see this was a safe distance last time. And we still had plenty room left." Naruto slammed his hand on the ground and raised them up into the air.

"Let's watch this beauty!" Deidara said bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Katsu!" Naruto shouted making the cross seal.

A few seconds passed. Which was normal for these explosions.

BOOM! The earth shook.

They could feel the heat brush against their faces, the three blinked the spots away from their eyes. The crater was twice as big as the first crater. They watched as the sides of the crater melted down to the bottom slowly cooling.

"BRAT!" Onoki shouted as he raised another pillar to go next to theirs.

"Yes?" The two boys asked.

"What the hell was that?! We saw it all the way from Iwa!"

"That was my newest bomb, last year is called T-1… this year I managed to double it to the T-2"

Onoki grumbled, "You could have warned me."

"Oh? Does oji-san want to see the explosions?" He teased the man.

Onoki leveled a glare at him. He didn't say anything though.

Naruto beamed. Having gotten his answer the man soon left. The rest of the day was spent as normal, messing around with explosions and sparring. Deidara though said that he was almost done with something and that he would show Naruto after the tournament.

With that the two boys parted and as they got back into Iwa Naruto was forced to run from fangirls to his hotel room. The next morning he got dressed in his formal clothes and fixed his hair to look more tame than it usually did, still spiky, but now it was more reminiscent of Madara's luscious hair. Naruto paused as he realized what he thought, 'Damn Dara-chan infecting me with his stupid hair fanaticism.'

Heading out he made his way to the tournament, Asuma following behind him a giddy look on his face. "Jeez, you're excited for this." Naruto stated flatly. He loved the tournament, but Asuma looked like a kid set free in a candy shop with as much money to spend as they could need.

When they arrived and Asuma was asked if he wanted to participate…. The man looked like a squirrel on crack. Onoki came over and they made their usual bet. The tournament progressed as usual, Asuma made it to the top 15 before he was drawn up against Onoki and lost, having to suffer the punishment, the terrible unspeakable horrible punishment that should never be repeated.

Anyways the final ten came up, with only a few changes in the people, nobody important though. Naruto and Onoki faced off finally, though this year Naruto was challenging him from second place since his name had come up as 9 original and Onoki's as 4. They of course saved there fight as the last show as it had been every year. Naruto won despite Onoki doing everything in his power to distract him and get him to loss.

After they spent time signing posters and such then they went to dinner and finally the hot springs."

The next day Naruto and Deidara were given a scroll each. "I gave you two the same scroll l, you two are the only ones who utilize clay to the extent you do. For you Naruto it's my payment from the tournament, Deidara, that there is an early christmas present." Onoki explained as Naruto sent him a questioning look.

The two boys beamed and started working together to learn the jutsu. The Nendo Bunshin, a clone made out of clay. The two boys worked hard and each time either made a bit of progress they shared it with each other quickly learning the clay clone within the day. "Hey Naruto, can you meet me at the explosion testing field around midnight?"

"Sure, why though?"

"I have something I want to show you, and it is better at night." Deidara said with a grin.

"Okay!"

Naruto took a nap and his shimmer woke up and he went to go meet Deidara, Asuma following with a yawn. They arrived at the training field to see Deidara already waiting for them.

"Finally now let me show you how far my art has progressed!" Deidara said bouncing around. "First Naruto can you lift us into the air?"

Naruto nodded and doing the jutsu the three were on a pillar about fifty feet high. "Now! Just watch the show!" Deidara shouted as he threw out a few small circular beads.

They were quickly exploded, each one a different shade of grey and a different shape, they were basic shapes, but it was still impressive. Then Deidara threw one of his clay sculptures, a bird.

The two Konoha citizens watched as Deidara did a hand sign the bird getting bigger and flying around a bit, then the older boy crossed his fingers, "Katsu," he whispered out with a maniacal grin.

The bird exploded, it was all kinds of shades of grey and it retained the shape of the bird even as it expanded outwards. Slowly it dissipated.

"Wow! That was brilliant!" Naruto enthused.

"So much potential…" Madara said grinning.

" **Yeah! Oh man that was awesome, such destructive awesomeness!** " Kurama said forming himself.

Asuma and Deidara paused as they looked at the fox-bug clone. Asuma twitched.

"Huh who are you?" Deidara asked.

" **Kurama, pleased to meet you.** " The fox clone said offering a paw to shake.

Deidara shook it then shuddered.

"Ah, Kurama here is a Fox-bug clone as I called it." Naruto explained upon seeing Deidara's questioning look.

Deidara nodded, "Ah, so this is your biju then, the kyuubi?"

Naruto's eyes widened and he took a step back. His breathing stated escalating, he didn't want Deidara to hate him like Konoha did...

Deidara noticed, "Hey, calm down. It's okay Naruto-kun." He said gently as he slowly approached and hugged Naruto.

The boy calmed down as Deidara hugged him. "You know?"

"Yeah, when you made the T-1 last year, we knew for sure, before that Onoki had his suspicions, but we don't care, afterall you're one of our honorary Shinobi."

"I-" Naruto was speechless as he just tightened his hug on the older boy.

" **Bah, enough of the touchy feely stuff! I want to see some more explosions before we have to return to the leaf village. Naruto, can we please make a 3 tail bomb? Please?** " the mightiest of the biju asked bouncing around.

"Sure."

Asuma twitched.

Kurama dissipated the bugs returning to his gourd as Naruto pulled out a marble. Unlike before they allowed the cloak to form around them for a moment before channeling the chakra into the little clay ball.

"Wow! So impressive! My best friend has one of the most destructive forces known to man! No wonder you could use it to make awesome explosions." Deidara said beaming at him.

"Before you release that you might want to inform the Tsuchikage." Asuma warned them as they went to place the destructive marble.

Deidara smirked and made a clay clone who dashed back towards the village.

They had to wait about twenty minutes before Onoki came. "Gah! You damn brat's what the hell do you think your doing up so late?" the man grumbled as he made an earth pillar to join them. They had already set the Marble and had gotten far away.

"T-3." Deidara and Naruto stated with happy pyromaniacal grins on their faces.

Onoki twitched, "You two and your explosions, I doubt you two would have thought to alert me though.." He turned and raised an eyebrow at Asuma who gave a nod in response.

"Alright brats, let's get this over with so I can back to sleep."

Naruto grinned as he made the cross seal, "Katsu!"

The resulting explosion was huge, twice as large as the T-2, meaning it was four times as large as T-1. It resulted in a twenty feet deep crater that was forty feet wide, completely gone, with the sides melting. The fire from the blast reached 480 feet.

"Such Beauty..." Deidara/ Naruto/ Madara/ and Kurama all murmured in sync.

Soon the two boys went back to sleep. The next day it was time for Naruto to leave Iwa once more. He went to the gate where he saw Deidara waiting for him, holding something in his hands. "Naruto! I couldn't really sleep after that show last night, and I thought to make you something." He held up a small clay bird.

"This is the same thing as last night, if you throw it while pulsing your chakra into it and thinking of a target, it will follow after that person as well as expanded to its larger form, when it gets close enough you can explode it. This should be really useful if you encounter someone who can fly." Deidara stated. He looked like he had more stuff to say.

Onoki rolled his eyes, "Deidara, would you like to patrol the borders? You can walk with Naruto until you get to the border."

"Sure!" Deidara agreed bouncing on his feet.

The boys walked out Asuma just watching amused. "Anyways speaking of someone flying, I wish I had these earlier this year. So I was on a mission when an enemy missing ninja with control over the air took to the air to dodge my explosions and the attack of my team. It was only because of the T-1 you gave me that me and my team are still alive. When the man dived down to make one of his attacks I managed to hook the bracelet on him without him noticing. He flew way up in the air again, like a mile up, way out of reach of any of us. But not out of the reach of me activating the bead. The explosion was huge! Anyways I wanted to thank you for giving me that gift."

Naruto smiled, "No problem…" Taking off his bracelet he handed it over to the boy.

"Here just in case, I'll make myself another one when I get back to Konoha."

"Thank you Naruto-kun!"

Naruto beamed, "It's no problem."

"Say are you going to work on making your explosions into shapes or colors?"

"Not really, explosions are your forte Deidara, I'm happy with just my T-bombs. Eventually I'll get to T-9, and me and Kurama were talking about the Version two cloak, I'm nowhere close to trying to make that cloak, but we suspect that if I can make a version two cloak than I should also be able to make it into the bombs, I've already thought to call the the V series."

"Cool! Have you thought about specialising in anything?"

"Not really, I kinda just know a lot about all kinds of stuff." He was kinda specialized in Information though since his ability gave him an edge over everyone else.

The trio continued walking until they hit Iwa's border by the end of the second day. They parted ways as Deidara begun his border patrol. Naruto took off his Iwa honorary shinobi headband and sealed it away.

Then the duo continued back to Konoha.

 **A/n: I hope you guys enjoy! I've had so much fun writing Naruto's yearly trips to Iwa! There won't be to many trips left though before it's time for Naruto to graduate and become a genin! 5 chapters are left until the end of part one, and the end of my daily updates. Although I may not be able to update this weekend. I'll try, but I might not be able to.**


	25. Chapter 25

Soon they were standing in front of the Hokage.

"Mission successful." Asuma stated puffing a bit of smoke from the cigarette he always seemed to have in his mouth.

"Good… anything of interest?"

"Besides wondering why Naruto hasn't chosen to abandon Konoha and live in Iwa? Other than the fact that Iwa knows about the kyuubi, nothing much."

"Why would I want to live in Iwa, Konoha is my home." Naruto said instantly.

Sarutobi pinched his nose, "I figured Iwa knew about the kyuubi, how could the not with Naruto making thouse bombs of his." Then he looked at Naruto. "I have to admit I do also wonder why you see konoha as your home."

"It just is. I plan to prove to the citizens that they can trust me, that I will protect them."

The third gave a slow nod. "So Asuma, will you tell me what the tournament is?"

"Man when I learned you didn't know what it was old man I was surprised, I had known for a years now myself."

Sarutobi looked hopeful.

"But since you don't know I won't tell you."

"That's it! I'm sending Ibiki with you." The third said pouting after Asuma informed him that he would not tell him.

Asuma just shook his head in amusement, "Good luck on your tournament next year… your going to need it to deal with Ibiki."

Naruto gave a confused look. "Alright, well you're dismissed Naruto."

Naruto left. He returned to the house he now lived in with Jiraiya, on his birthday he had finally told the man about seeing shimmers, and he told Hinata about his parents and the Kyuubi, like Shino she chose to stay.

As for Jiraiya when he learned that it was Naruto who upstaged him as spymaster, well he laughed, he continued laughing until he abruptly stopped and said he needed a drink. The pervert had disappeared for the next three days reappearing on Naruto's couch completely smashed. Anyways the two now lived together in a small house.

Soon it was the beginning of the second year of the ninja academy, it was the same class as last year only it taught different material.

He still slept through most of it, his grades once more earning him the title of the dead last. Though he didn't really care about that, it just meant people would underestimate him. Well unless they were from outside of Konoha. They might recognize him.

Anyways he was still training in his free time, he was now actually registered as an on-duty Anbu, though he didn't have to do any of the missions since he was technically undercover, he even had the Anbu tattoo. Though he still was training with them, learning how to wield his three tail state. And he carried quite a few pouches on his waist filled with a bunch of premade tiny marbles in most of them, though the front one and easiest to reach was just filled with a giant lump of clay. Though Naruto could only make 3 T-3 bombs a day, since Kurama had to replenish it's chakra.

He also sold the marbles to the Anbu for them to use, the T-1 was sold in packs of Ten for 1,000,000 ryo.

The T-2 was sold in packs of 5 for 1,000,000. The T-3 was not for sale at the moment, but Naruto gave them to the Hokage who would give them out to the Anbu he felt would need that much explosion. Naruto also after experimenting with the different amount of clay and different amount of Kurama's chakra developed some 'Suicide bombs.' With just enough yield to completely vaporise your body, and possibly burn your captors to a crisp if they were close enough.

He gave them to the Hokage, as he had originally just been experimenting around to see if there was any useful yields besides for his low yield, and high yield, which was when he used the lowest amount of chakra into either a pound of clay or a marble size of clay. His clay pouch held clay made with a low explosive yield. Which meant that his standard marble of clay was about the explosion of an explosion tag.

Other than Anbu and Kurama, he was still learning that infernal three-step from Tobirama, including now lessons on Konoha's laws, when the man wasn't teaching him the theory behind sealing, while Jiraiya handled the physical aspect of. JIraiya was great at shoving something at Naruto and telling him what to do, but not why he should do it that way, or what would happen if he were to interchange one aspect for another. That's what Tobirama was good at explaining. Naruto had seals on all of his pouches, so while they seemed small on the outside, the inside was quite different as they could hold a lot. He also had a water canteen that could hold a lot of water, and the water was kept at a cold temperature, as if chilled by ice.

He had created only one new and original seal, it was a modification of the storage seal, and the food preservation seal. The food preservation seal could usually keep food fresh for a few days longer before it burned out, what Naruto wanted was for the food to be kept fresh and ready to eat, even years after the food was placed in it. So he started experimenting, at first nothing came to fruition, but eventually he managed to create a seal that should keep food fresh indefinitely. It had already kept a bowl of ramen fresh and hot for a month, as pristine as when he had put it in the seal. Six months after he designed the seal he pulled out his bowl of ramen, it was still perfect.

Grinning he called the seal a success. The seal used storage as its basics, but it had a time stopping mechanism, which meant that whatever entered the seal came into a permanent stasis. The only problem was the limit of the seal. For an item such as popcorn Naruto could pour in more and more and just pull out handfuls at a time. But for something like ramen where had to put it into a container before he stored it in there the storage scroll only held one for some reason, and he needed to have the container or else how was he supposed to bring the ramen out to eat, it wasn't like he could just pour the ramen in there and then stick his chopstick in there to pull out the noodles and other goodies. He paused, or could he? Pulling the bowl of ramen he opened the seal and slowly poured the ramen in. grabbing his chopsticks he stuck them partially in the seal then lifting them up he grinned at his success. "Yatta!"

Pulling out a scroll he started drawing seals, on top of them he wrote things such as Miso ramen, Pork ramen, Beef ramen, and all the other kinds of ramen. Then he made it so the scroll could be unrolled and rerolled easily. For the final decoration he crafted a scroll sleeve with the words Naruto's Ramen supply on it. Putting the finishing touches on it he made his way to Ichiraku's ramen, intent on buying up all the ramen they could make. Luckily since the Anbu liked having his higher tier explosives he had quite a stash of money.

"Hey Teuchi-oji! I'm wiping you clean today, make all the ramen you can!"

The ramen maker's eyes widened. "How much will it cost?" Naruto asked.

"I don't understand, why are you buying all the ramen we can make? Surly you don't plan on eating it all."

"I'm stocking for the future!" He said excited pulling out his scroll. "I finished the testing of a new seal that will allow me to preserve food indefinitely, or at least six months, I called it good after that. I figured I'd stick up on your ramen as much as I could, for whenever I'm away from Konoha, or if I can't come here to get my normal ramen for whatever reason, like lunch at the academy."

"I see." Teuchi stated and he and Ayame got to work.

For the rest of the day Naruto sat their sealing away the different flavors of ramen the two chefs made until there supplies rand out. The total for all the ramen was around 500,000 ryo. He payed them 1,000,000. It was his thank you to the ramen stall, he had faint memories when he was 4 or 5 and they found him cold and hungry and fed him without asking him to pay, and they offered him free bowls all the time, even now when he could pay for the food.

He would a couple months later and do the process again, wanting to fill up his scrolls even more. He also spent a week straight constantly making as much popcorn as he could to fill up his popcorn scroll.

Choji found out about the seal and since the two boys were friendly acquaintances Naruto drew the friendly boy a seal which he could store his favorite chips in, though he would have to mix them together, though Naruto said he would be willing to draw him a scroll similar to his ramen scroll if Choji was willing to pay 400,000 ryo for it. It was 4 times more expensive than a normal storage scroll, and twice as expensive as a standard preservation seal, but honestly when Choji heard the price he said he expected Naruto to ask more for it.

Which led to the Akimichi clan inviting him over for a casual meeting.

So here he was sitting at the dinner table eating a meal with the Akimichi clan, and unexpectedly the Nara clan and Yamanaka clan head families. "So, Naruto-san, I'm sure you figured we invited you here to talk about making a deal with you to get some more of those food scrolls."

Naruto nodded.

"We have our own proposition for you after having heard some rumors of the things you are doing, your making quite away in the clan's and the higher ranking Ninja, yet to the civilians and lower ranking ninja you remain quite unknown except for your burden." The Nara clan head stated.

"I am just interested in meeting you, when Choza here said he was having inviting you over I asked if I could come." The Yamanaka clan head explained.

"Ah, well since Akimichi-sama here is the host, I assume he will be directing what happens first."

"Please feel free to call me Choza," The akimichi clan head stated with a grin.

"Very well than Choza-san." Naruto told him with a small tilt of his head in acknowledgement. The two then worked out an agreement, Naruto would get a list of Akimichi who wanted the scroll, and what food they wanted to store, for Each seal Naruto had to draw it would cost 100,000. The scroll itself was 100,000. So if they just ordered one scroll with one seal it was 200,000 thousand. Choji's scroll which he had listed ten kinds of chips would have actually been 1,100,000, but Naruto said that Choji's would still only cost 400,000 since it had been agreed upon before the deal.

They told him they would pay him as he completed the scrolls, and that he had no deadline. He wouldn't get the list though for a week or two so that the clan had a chance to put there order on the list if they were interested.

Next was the Nara's proposition, which was to design a seal that when activated created a flare that would stay in place of wherever the scroll was when activated for 1 minute. If Naruto was able to do it they would pay him 10,000 ryo for each seal. The Nara clan head, who introduced himself as Shikaku, stated that if Naruto was able to make the seal into a small marble like his explosives, then that would be cool since them having a bit more weight made it easier to predict where it would go when thrown, unlike paper.

Naruto told the Nara clan head that he would work on that. After that the meeting was over since the Yamanaka clan head had just been there to observe mostly.

So he was doing plenty of seal work and getting paid a good bit of money for it. Since he really had no use for the money now that he was living with Jiraiya he just stored it.

It took him a month, but he designed the seal the Nara's asked, and he wa able to paint it onto hardened clay marbles. As for his father seal's book, it was no longer giving him a headache trying to make head or tails of the words written inside of it. He still couldn't make out much of the seal work, but he could understand his father's words and ideas behind the seal, the portions he wrote down anyways. The book seemed to focus on the Hiraishin and his deciphering of Tobirama's version to create his own. He put the book away again though as even the first entry was to complicated for him to figure out. The journal broke down the Hiraishin and gave examples of Tobirama's and Minato's differences for the seals made, but some of the entries didn't explain how that wasn't quite good enough to be able to figure out something like the Hiraishin.

Other than the interesting breakthroughs he had with his seals, his training with Madara and Hashirama was going well, his Sharingan now had two tomoe each. He was becoming proficient in the gunbai and his Taijutsu skills were at chunin level according to the commander. The only thing he really lacked was experience in actual combat scenarios. According to his Madara the standards of Konoha had truly fallen, even if the old education system had been implanted and that according to him and Hashirama he was only at genin strength.

But until he graduated he could keep training. And sure he could pass early if he wanted, but he would much rather get in as much training as he could before he had to graduate, because after that he wouldn't have as much time to train how he wanted, he would have to do team training and do D-rank missions.

Anyways he had received the Akimichi list and a lot of his free time was making the scrolls, he had the scroll with the number of required seals inside of it, and he was to design the scroll sleeve of each scroll. Which was mostly just drawing the Akimichi clan symbol on either side of whichever Akimichi name it was.

He still spent time with Shino and Hinata each week, as well as spending time with the Ino-shika-cho juniors, thought that was mostly shogi with Shikamaru, ramen contestes with Choji, and Ino just kinda tagged along. Speaking of shoji though he occasionally participated in the underground tournaments, he never made it to the final rounds. But each time he felt like he was improving and learning.

His colony was growing as well. In another half a year or so he would have to replace his ten galleon gourd with the twenty galleon gourd.

His birthday came in went the celebration even larger than last year's as more people came to celebrate it. He was now eleven years old.

Nothing else of any real importance happened though and so the academy's second year came to a peaceful end. Naruto grinned excited, In just another week it would be time for him to once more go to the tournament.

 **A/n: 4 chapters left until the end of part one. I know the tournaments may be seeming to be** **repetitive** **, but I'm trying to show that time is passing by in a** **relatively** **fast manor. Once Part two happens than there will be a lot more stuff happening in the year and time will seemingly be crawling along. Anyways a lot of you have mentioned pairings in the reviews. I do not have any plans to pair Naruto with anyone. I don't care for romance. And I hate** **whenever** **people have teenage romance in their stories. Like seriously Naruto's twelve and hes dating a girl, sometimes even having sex with her. Even at 16! I do not like the ideas of teenage romance so If there were to ever be any pairings it would most likely be an epilogue stating when hes like 30 or something. Anyways Sorry for the little rant about dating in story's. I hope you enjoy!**


	26. Chapter 26

Naruto was at the gate waiting for his guard to show up. He had made his request yesterday and had gotten all of his stuff including some formal new formal clothes, though as always it had the leaf symbol embroidered on the back of the coat, just underneath where his hair ended. He waited at the gate and right as 7 am came about a man appeared in a shunshin.

He had a his forehead protector wrapped around his head like a bandana, he had two scars across his face and he wore a trench coat. "My name is Ibiki Morino, I am to be your guard for your trip." The man stated flatly.

"Cool! Nice to meet you Ibiki-san." Naruto stated as they headed out.

The journey continued in mostly silence, Naruto tried to start conversations but Ibiki was like a rock, he didn't display an emotion and only answered questions briefly. With the minimal amount of information possible, or sometimes not even answering the question. Naruto didn't even realize the man hadn't even answered his question and instead redirected the conversation until Madara mentioned it.

Naruto had pouted for a moment. Anyways it was the third day of traveling now when Ibiki finally asked a question.

"Hokage-sama informed me that you are an honorary shinobi of Iwa, though he did not state how this came to happen." And though he didn't phrase it as a question Naruto knew it was in fact a question. So inwardly smirking he decided to copy the man's earlier mannerisms as a bit of payback.

"Yes I am an honorary shinobi of Iwa." Naruto confirmed then he didn't say anything else.

He noticed Ibiki glance at him. "How did you become an honorary shinobi of Iwa?" He asked.

"I won a bet." Naruto answered the question as directly as he could, without lying, but also leaving out the background information. Same as Ibiki had done.

The man's expression changed for the first time since they had left Konoha as he smirked slightly. The rest of the day continued like that the man making statements or asking questions and Naruto mimicking how the man had answered his questions on the first day, sometimes Hashirama or Madara providing input for how to redirect the conversation.

As the third day ended and they got ready to sleep Ibiki nodded at him, "You did fairly well mimicking how I answered questions the first day."

"Thanks?" Naruto stated confused if that was a compliment or not.

Ibiki just smirked again as he went into his tent.

Naruto shrugged and went to sleep himself.

The next day the man once more asked him questions, but after Naruto answered trying to once more mimic the man's evasive ways Ibiki told him how to do it better guiding him, saying that misdirection was a valuable ninja tool. Naruto eagerly listened, he loved learning things that were interesting.

Slowly Naruto's newly learned skill of misdirection and answer invasion improved. They arrived the fifth day of travel about mid afternoon. Naruto was waved through though the gate guards eyed Ibiki with fear.

Naruto shrugged at that and made his way to the Tsuchikage building. He entered old man Onoki's room with a smile. "Hey old man!" He greeted with a grin.

"Brat." The man grunted back before he looked up. He looked at Naruto's guard and his eye started twitching.

"Why did the hokage saw fit to have your guard be Konoha's Mind Breaker Morino?" He asked flatly.

"Mind Breaker Morino?" Naruto asked tilting his head and looking up at his guard who just had a small smirk on his face.

Onoki sighed. "I guess this is just another attempt to learn the tournament."

"Probably," Naruto agreed with a nod.

"Well good to see your still going to put up a fight. Even if this is the year I reclaim my throne." Onoki said smirking at the boy.

"Ha! You wish Oji-san! I've held this title for 4 years now, I ain't letting you take it away from me." Naruto stated grinning.

"Hmpf, well I'm sure Deidara will be happy to see you, that brat has been bouncing around waiting for you to arrive, go have fun." Onoki stated dismissively.

"Alright, where is he? Usually I just run into him."

"I will lead you to him." A person said stepping out of the wall.

Naruto blinked, then shrugged at seeing the masked figure. Probably an Iwa Anbu. "Lead the way!"

He happily followed as the man jumped out the window. The Iwa Anbu led him through the village and into a gated compound. "This is where Deidara lives." The Iwa Anbu said bowing his head as he left.

Naruto shrugged and knocked on the door. A half minute later the door opened to reveal Deidara, "Hey, what brings- Naruto-kun!" Deidara started then he grinned as he saw Naruto, the older boy bent down and hugged Naruto ruffling his hair.

"Deidara!" Naruto beamed back returning the hug happily.

"Finally! I've missed having someone who understands the true beauty of art to talk with!" The boy said bouncing, "I've made so many improvements since you were last here! You know the bird explosion I created last year? Well now I can do that with my spiders and other creations as well, that was easy, but I figured out how to have more control of my clay creations after I throw them. Check this out!"

Deidara pulled out a bird figure and tossed it on the ground a few feet away. It expanded and he jumped on, "Let me show you! Jump on."

Curious Naruto nodded and he did Ibiki jumping up as well. Then to Naruto's surprise the bid lifted up and took off flying to the explosion testing field within seconds. "Wow!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah I can now directly control it's flight! Anyways you know i have the explosion release, which means I have two primary affinities of lightning and earth, un. Well I have mastered the two affinities already and the old man thought I should see if I have a secondary affinity, which I do, it's fire. So seeing as how my art results in a fiery blast I wondered if I could control the fire…" He started explaining as they hoped of the bird.

The bird flew up and a hundred feet in the air it exploded, it still retained it shape of the bird, though it was bigger now and made of fire. Deidara was holding a hand sign and then the fire bird started flying around before a few seconds later it dissipated. He released the hand sign and panted out of breath.

"Wow! So cool!" Naruto enthused very impressed.

Deidara beamed at him. "Yep! So how is your art going, do you got a T-4 yet?"

"No, I'm still having issues controlling the three tail cloak." Naruto replied with a shrug.

"Ah well," Deidara said.

"I do have a bit of an idea though I thought I could try here, you might be able to incorporate it as well."

"Oh?"

Naruto nodded and pulled out a small ball, bigger than a marble. "What is that?" Deidara asked.

"It's a layer T bomb. The idea behind this is the outer layer is the smallest explosion, in this case my T-1, the middle layer would be the medium explosion, my T-2, and the very center would be my T-3. You would start with exploding the outer layer, which will hopefully set the second layer off and then the third. Each getting larger and more deadly."

"Brilliant! If your opponent gets out of range of the first blast, they might not of the second or third!"

Naruto nodded. He placed the explosion down and the two backed far away. Then Naruto lifted them up into the air.

"Katsu!" He shouted exploding the bomb.

An explosion rocked out after the normal few second delay. But that was it only one explosion, granted though it was as if it was a slightly larger T-1. Naruto pouted.

"Aww." He and Madara choursed.

"Looks like that didn't work, I wonder why?"

"I don't know, maybe the explosion because of how hot it is destroys the middle portions of the bomb before they are given a chance to activate? If that's so then I need to protect the other layers." Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a pre-made T-3. "How to protect it from the explosion though until it can activate? Maybe a containment seal? But would that interfere when the explosion goes off and contain the explosion?" Naruto murmured out loud as he pulled out a low yield explosion. Pulling out his sealing ink he drew the containment seal on the little bead. As he did this Deidara started working on his own explosive experiments

Throwing the bead as far he could he watched it go far away in the air, until lost sight of it. With a Katsu Deidara looked up to watch.

A few seconds later they watched as nothing seemed to happen, both boys not knowing where the bead was frowned. "I wonder what happened?" Deidara questioned.

"Your bomb exploded, but the containment seal stopped it from expanding outwards." Ibiki informed them.

Hashirama pouted and closed his mouth.

"Huh, not quite what I wanted to happen, so the seal acted as a barrier for the explosion. Hmm…"

" **What if you were to wrap each layer in my chakra, theoretically since the explosions are made from my chakra it shouldn't hurt anything with demonic chakra.** " Kurama stated forming himself as the fox-bug clone.

Ibiki stared.

"What do you mean?" Deidara asked.

" **Well the explosion you see may look like it's made of fire, but it is in fact just my demonic chakra. My chakra is super hot, Naruto here doesn't feel its heat because he is protected by me. I can negate the more negative effects of my chakra, so long as he does not get more than he or his body can handle. Anyways since my chakra is concentrated into that clay it becomes highly agitated, waiting for it to release, when given the command then it explodes out it a rush decimating everything for a small bit and then just continuing to disperse outwards, which while still hot eventually thins out enough to not burn everything. If Naruto was cloaked in my chakra, of equal or greater amount than what is being exploded than he should not be affected by it, if it was something stronger like him using a two tail cloak vs a T-3 bomb then it would affect him, though greatly reduced from what a normal person would experience.** " Kurama explained.

"Wow." Deidara said his eyes going wide at the information.

Naruto thought over it, "So if your theory is true… then between the outer layer and the middle layer we would wrap one tail of your chakra around it, which should stop the T-2 bomb from being destroyed, and then the T-2 would blow up overpowering the 1 tail cloak of chakra around it, and between the T-2 layer and T-3 layer it would need a two tail cloak protection. But how will we wrap your chakra around the layer? If we just made the in between layers wouldn't they end up like the explosions?"

" **Not in this case, before we would be shoving my chakra into the clay, this time we will be wrapping it around the object.** "

"Ah I see! Once we do that then can we just wrap a new layer around like we did for the previous layer bomb?"

Kurama looked thoughtful, " **We might, but the cloak around the bead may not allow it. Also how do you plan to set off all layers? The idea behind the other was that the explosion itself would make a chain reaction, but with my chakra protecting each layer from the explosion that won't happen.** "

"Well I could activate it multiple seconds, giving a few seconds delay in between each one, or more if needed. Actually it could be used to deceive opponents who would only expect the one explosion and…" Naruto started cackling as his brain led him to many ideas. To be fair though Madara was cackling alongside him as Hashirama inched away.

Kurama and Deidara both grinned as well knowing exactly where Naruto was going. After all if they expected only one explosion and they got to close they would be in for a surprise by the second more bigger explosion.

"Alright Kurama, lets see if wrapping the second layer of clay around the cloak works, if it doesn't then we can try and figure out how to fix it."

The fox-bug clone dispersed his bikaichu returning to the gourd. Naruto once more pulled out the three tail bomb and he and Kurama wrapped the two tail chakra around the bead with the chakra compressing itself around the bead. Naruto hissed and was forced to drop the marble as when the last of his cloak left him his hands were unprotected from the heat.

" **Physically transform your hands, that will protect your from the heat.** " Kurama said from within the gourd.

Naruto Nodded and concentrating his hands transformed fur sporting and his fingers elongating with claws growing out.

"Wicked, un." Deidara said with a grin.

Naruto smiled happily. He picked up the bead which had started melting a hole in the stone. He didn't feel any heat on his hands, though his arms past the transformation could feel that it was releasing heat, just not enough to burn anymore. Pulling out a T-2 and his small bottle of water with an eyedropper he put some water on the dried out clay making it malleable again as he then went to wrap it around chakra cloaked T-3. Luckily it seemed the cloak allowed the clay to be wrapped around it, though it quickly redried the clay. They then wrapped the second layer in a one tail cloak. Grabbing a T-1 he wetted it and wrapped it around the second layer. He noticed that the T-1 which was a normally a lighter shade of grey, become darker and darker until it was pitch black. Then the bead shrunk down to Naruto's normal marble size. The heat the bomb had been expanding even with the cloak covered completely dissipated.

"That… looks terrifying." Deidara said.

Naruto cautiously dropped his physical transformation, the marble of clay felt completely smooth, as if made of glass, it wasn't hot at all. "I wonder why it changed?" He mused out loud.

" **I may have had an effect on it, because I was willing my chakra to let the clay surround it, I was shaping out the chakra would act, my chakra is an extension of my will, meaning as such even after it leaves my body I can control it until it disappears, that why by sending my chakra to the colony we control I can talk and move around. Anyways because of how I was willing it to act as it left my body it must of reacted to how it thinks would best work. The only thing we can try is to explode it and see what happens.** "

"Alright then! I'm gonna go down and place it. I'll be right back!" Naruto said as he jumped down and used his chakra to stick to the pillar as he ran down it. He placed his bomb in the center of the crater he had made earlier with the failed layer bomb. Turning away he ran from it back up the tower.

"Ready?" Naruto asked.

Deidara and Ibiki nodded.

"Katsu!" Naruto shouted a second later he shouted Katsu a second time and then he said Katsu for the third time right as the T-1 layer went off. A second after the T-1 exploded a second explosion ringed out, then another second later the final T-3 exploded. Each explosion rapidly overtook the other making the explosion of demonic chakra to expand even further than a normal T-3 bomb. They were spared from the blast by a mere fifty feet. The heat from the blast ruffling Ibiki's coat.

"Woah, that was bigger than expected."

"That was awesome! Look at the crater!" Deidara shouted pointing

The crater was now twenty five feet deep, with a circular radius of fifty feet of completely vaporized rock, and the sides were of course still melting. The blast radius was 650 feet, luckily they had been 700 feet away.

"Cool…" The boys whispered in identical pyromaniacal glee.

The rest of the day was spent with Deidara experimenting with his clay trying to create a similar effect to Naruto's Triple L Bomb. Naruto had originally called it the Low Level Layered Bomb but Deidara had said it was to long and renamed it. Naruto crafted two more of the black bombs before he couldn't make anymore as Kurama was out of chakra. If he had to make one of these bombs from scratch he would only be able to make one and it would eat up all nine tails of chakra.

Naruto was excited once he would be able to make the second tier of this bomb which he decided would be the 4 tail 5 tail and 6 tail bombs, he still had a long way to go before he could make that though. After night fell the two boys went out to eat before they headed there separate ways. Naruto smiled as he got ready to go to bed, today had been a fun day.

 **A/n: New chapter! Yay! So I'm thinking of changing the** **summary** **and I want to know your guys** **opinions** **.**

 **Original:** _Naruto meets a strange snake-like man, later that night he encounters a deranged drunk man who stabs Naruto in his eyes. The snake-like man rescues him before the deranged drunk can finish the job, he even offers to try and help give Naruto his eyes back. He does, but Naruto can no longer see colors. A month or so afterwards he starts seeing shimmers that soon develop into people._

 **New:** _Naruto has an encounter with Orochimaru which later that same night results in him gaining a new pair of eyes. He losses his ability to see colors, but in return he gains the ability to see dead people. Naruto becomes friends with some of the dead people he calls shimmers, such as his guardian who watches over him, or the sad shimmer who seems to be upset for some reason._

 **If you have another idea for the summary let me know, or if you think the original is fine than please tell me. :) Thank you for reading this fanfiction of mine, and I hope you enjoy!**


	27. Chapter 27

OoOoO- Ibiki -OoOoO

"Hokage-sama." He said respectfully bowing before standing back up. Idly he noticed that the Anbu who usually guarded the Hokage were absent.

"Ah Ibiki-kun! Good I have a mission for you."

He raised an eyebrow, surprised and questioning. It wasn't often he got a mission, must be vital information that they couldn't afford to let slip.

He saw the Hokage look amused before he said, "Your mission is to guard Naruto Uzumaki on his yearly trip to Iwa."

Ibiki frowned slightly at that. Why was he being assigned to Uzumaki?

"You are aware as head of T&I that we have a new spymaster whose identity is unknown to most, correct?"

He gave a nod to the Hokage, wondering where the leader was going with this. Surly he couldn't mean… "Naruto Uzumaki is that spymaster."

"How can he be the spymaster?" Ibiki asked.

"Naruto-kun has an ability, we are not sure if it is infact a bloodline or not, but it allows him to see spirits."

His face carefully remaining neutral he thought over that information, if Uzumaki was able to see Spirits, "Can he speak with them?"

"Yes."

"He has a network of spirits, that people do not even know exist much less expect to spy on them." Ibiki spoke in realization, and also wanting confirmation.

"That is correct, you mission is not just to guard Naruto-kun, you are to help him learn to be able to withstand word games, and mind games. You can use this as an opportunity to see how well you think he can handle being probed for information. Since he was so young I've put this off, but he is in regular proximity to sensitive information that even most Jounin aren't aware of."

Ibiki nodded, "Very well."

"And Ibiki, Naruto likes to surprise his guards with a few things, I normally wouldn't warn the guard, but I know you do not appreciate surprises. He is an honorary shinobi of Iwa, as well as able to control the kyuubi's chakra up to three tails, though if he has to use the three tails in a battle there is a chance of him losing control. Iwa knows of his heritage, and his burden. That should be it for his major surprises."

He frowned a bit at that but gave a respectful bow as he left hearing the dismissal in the Hokage's voice.

The next day he met up with Uzumaki who seemed excited as they left. The boy asked him questions throughout the first day. He answered as evasively as he could, sometimes redirecting the questions away so he didn't have to answer. At first it seemed like Uzumaki was unaware of what he was doing, then Uzumaki's eyes flickered to the side and then back at him where he pouted. Could that have been him listening to a spirit?

The second day not much happened. The third he decided to test how Uzumaki would answer his questions, "Hokage-sama informed me that you are an honorary shinobi of Iwa, though he did not state how this came to happen." He stated purposely making it sound like a question even though none was directly asked.

"Yes I am an honorary shinobi of Iwa." Uzumaki confirmed. Ibiki inwardly nodded in approval.

"How did you become an honorary shinobi of Iwa?" He asked curiously to how the boy would answer the direct question.

"I won a bet." Uzumaki answered.

Ibiki gave a small smirk, throughout the rest of the day he continued testing Uzumaki. It became clear throughout the day the boy was doing his best to mimic how he had answered the questions on the first day.

The next day he gave Uzumaki pointers and tips how to better misdirect the other person with answers. The boy surprisingly took the tips well and applied them. At the beginning of the fifth day Uzumaki put on his honorary shinobi headband as they continued their journey.

They were waved through the gate easily though he did notice the guards eye him with fear, inwardly he smirked, he loved his reputation.

Naruto made his way to a building Ibiki recognized as where the Tsuchikage resided from reports. Naruto entered a room without even knocking and cheerfully greeted the tsuchikage.

When Onoki looked up he noticed that the Tsuchikage's eye started twitching.

"Why did the hokage saw fit to have your guard be Konoha's Mind Breaker Morino?" He asked flatly.

"Mind Breaker Morino?" Uzumaki asked tilting his head and looking up at him he gave the boy a small smirk.

Onoki sighed. "I guess this is just another attempt to learn the tournament."

"Probably," Uzumaki agreed with a nod.

Onoki then smirked and told the boy he was going to win, Uzumaki just scoffed at him and told Onoki that he wasn't going to lose. They then left to go meet someone named Deidara as they followed an Iwa Anbu.

They were led to a house and Uzumaki shared a hug with an older boy, whose hair looked startling with how close the shade was to Naruto's the difference was were Uzumaki's mane of hair was spiky the other boy, Deidara, had more flat hair. The two started talking about art, or was it explosions?

Anyways Deidara made some kind of bird construct and jumped on Uzumaki jumping on as well. He followed as he continued watching just what was happening. Soon they were dropped down onto a rocky training field.

He watched as the bird construct they had just got off flew up into the air and with a Katsu from Deidara it exploded becoming at least four times larger before it started flying around for a few seconds made of fire before it dissipated.

Then Uzumaki revealed that he had created a new type of explosion. Ibiki watched curious, he had heard about Uzumaki's explosions, even bought a pack of the T-1's to have on hand. He listened as Uzumaki explained that he was hoping it would explode one after another, like a cluster bomb. He watched as Uzumaki placed it and then they backed far away and being lifted into the air by a doton jutsu. Uzumaki then exploded the bomb. Unfortunately it seemed as though it didn't work.

Then Uzumaki rambled on a bit before drawing a seal on one of his low yield explosions. He watched as the boy threw it his eyes keeping track of it as the boy said Katsu, he saw a small white flash, but the containment seal stopped it from exploding outwards.

He blinked as bugs came out of the gourd on Uzumaki's back and formed a small fox figure which took the appearance of a miniature Kyuubi, only with one tail instead of nine. He watched as the clone started talking. The Iwa boy didn't even seem surprised.

Next came a conversation about the demonic chakra and how it was utilized in the Uzumaki's bomb making. After a bit the boy started cackling evilly. Though to be fair to the boy if this new Layer bomb worked it would be very destructive as the opponent would only expect one explosion, not multiple with each getting larger.

Then Uzumaki got to work creating the bomb. After he seemed to be done they all watched as the bomb shrunk a bit as it turned pitch black the heat that had been dispersing from it was suddenly gone.

The boy went to place it before coming back up. He shouted Katsu three times a second delay in between each shout. Right as he finished the first explosion happened. He watched prepared to take action if the blast was going to get to close, but he noticed it lose moment and the blast stopped fifty feet away from them.

The two boys were gleeful as they looked at the crater made. Finally the day came to an end and Uzumaki led them to a hotel.

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

Naruto got dressed and ready for the tournament. Making his way for breakfast at the ramen stand he saw Deidara waiting there for him. The fourteen year old boy smiled at him, "Hey! I though I would find you here, un." he greeted wrapping an arm around Naruto in a hug.

"Hey Deidara!" Naruto replied leaning into the older boy's hug, he enjoyed spending time with the explosion loving boy.

"You ready to defeat the old man again?" Deidara asked.

"Yeah!"

"Sweet! I heard they changed the wheel of addition this year."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, they want to try something different for round three, I don't know what is was, but apparently they do this every ten years or so to try and shake up the leaderboard."

"Interesting, I wonder what it could be." Naruto replied as he ate his tenth bowl of ramen. "Say Ibiki-san, will you be participating in the tournament?"

"I have still not been informed as to what this tournament is." Ibiki responded.

Naruto and Deidara smirked, "What else could it be? It is one of the most dangerous things known to humankind, a game more deadly than any other, one mistake can ruin any pride you have, your mind can crumble underneath the pressure." The two boys choursed.

"Well probably not you." Deidara amended at the end.

Ibiki glowered down at the two boys, though his facial expression didn't even seem to change from his normal flat expression, nothing seemed to change, yet he seemed intimidating all of the sudden.

The two boys started sweating nervously. "Were you two trying to be threatening and ominous?"

"Yes?" Naruto managed to squeak out, while Deidara just nodded.

"That was pathetic." The man stated the threatening aura disappearing.

The two boys pouted and then Naruto asked, "Can you teach us how to be more intimidating then?"

Deidara grinning as well the two boys looking up at Ibiki, there eyes sparkling in admiration. "I suppose I can you boys a tip. What do you two know of Killing Intent?"

"Depending on the level of the user the victim feels like there going to die, the stronger the user the more severe the effect on the victim."

"Correct, and do you know how to use it?"

"Um, its a chakra manipulation of a sort, yeah?" Naruto said hesitantly remembering a chat between a couple anbu a few weeks back.

Ibiki gave a nod. "Correct you utilize your chakra to convey an emotion or a feeling, such as the user's will to kill something."

Thee two boys nodded, "If its utilizing chakra to convey emotions or feelings that means it can be stuff other then your intention to kill?" Deidara asked out loud.

Naruto nodded, "Which means that feeling just than! Was that a killing intent only with the feeling of intimidation?"

"Correct, most commonly known as the threatening aura. I am one of the most proficient users in Konoha, as is Kakashi."

"Kakashi… isinit he that face masked guy that came with you a couple years back?"

"Yeah! Anyways, how to we utilize our chakra to convey emotions?" Naruto asked.

"You already got your tip." Ibiki stated turning away.

The boys pouted.

Madara scoffed. "It is easy, Hashirama uses it, only he prefers to mask his comrades with the feeling of peace and safety. Which is why people often say his chakra is warm, and comfortable, because he is almost constantly emitting the chakra manipulation. I tend not to use it to much."

"Yep! So you just let your chakra roam free around you, focus on the emotion you want to convey and make your target feel and that's the basics of it. To direct it at someone just push your chakra in that direction when you let it roam free around you."

Naruto frowned a bit. Twitching his right leg he asked, 'How?'

"How to let your chakra roam free around you?" Hashirama correctly interpreted. The boys started walking to the tournament as Hashirama spoke next, "Well you should feel your chakra inside you, that it stays inside your skin, until you direct it outside via a technique, what you need to figure out how to do it is to let it outside of your skin without directing it for a technique, it should be relatively simple, though you may have to figure out by relaxing." He explained as they walked into the building.

Since they didn't have time to practice it Naruto just filed the information away for later. As soon as they arrived in the main area a chear went up, with Screams of Naruto-kun, a few for their Deidara-kun.

The two boys shuddered, "Fangirls, if there is one reason I'm glad I'm not first its cause of fangirls, the old man didn't have to deal with them since he's so old, and he was married." Deidara muttered.

Naruto sighed, "At least since I live in Konoha I don't have to deal with them the majority of the time, I don't know what's worse, being hounded by fangirls, or being hated for Kurama."

Deidara shrugged in answer, Onoki came over with a smirk, "Alright brat, this year for sure I will reclaim my throne!"

"You wish old man."

"Usual bet?" The old man said with a smirk.

"Your on Oji-san." Naruto agreed.

With that the tournament was on, it proceed till the third round, "This year for the third round, find a partner to tag team with! You and your partner both have to win to move onto the next round. Your partner will be the person your sitting next to."

Naruto blinked and looked at Ibiki who had decided to participate. The man had been sitting next to him since he was his guard. The two tagged team their opponents, Ibiki using his reputation and intimidation thing to scare his opponents and easily win.

Next for round four the two who had tagged team had to face each other. "Just because I'm your guard doesn't mean I'm going easy on you." Ibiki stated staring at him, that intimidating aura focused on him.

Naruto froze a feeling of fear enter him. Then Hashirama placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder and a wave of peace and calmness flowed through him. Naruto grinned as he looked at Ibiki. The man saw that his intimidation tactic was no longer working and frowned a bit.

As Madara called out the moves to make Naruto grinned as he won against Ibiki. The tournament continued as normal as Naruto easily won against the rest of his opponents including Onoki. The rest of the day was of course spent signing items and chatting with the fans a little bit. The group left at the end to go eat and then relax in the hot springs. There was nothing better to end the day with then a nice relaxing visit to the hot springs.

The next day he woke up and found a scroll on his bedside stand. Opening he saw it was a jutsu scroll from Onoki.

Getting changed he went to find Deidara. Which he went to the bakudan place and saw the older boy eating an extra plate on the table, "Were you waiting for me?" Naruto asked amused.

"Yep!

The two ate before heading to the explosion training field which had basically been given to them to keep there destructiveness in one place. The Training field was once more fixed, probably a ninja using an earth jutsu to fix the training field.

Naruto told Deidara what Hashirama told him about the technique of manipulating their chakra to convey emotions. The two boys began practicing it, both learning it within a couple hours to a beginners level.

Next Naruto sat out to learning the earth jutsu he had been given which was, Doton: Hidden in stones Jutsu. It allowed him to merge into any rocky surface and travel through stone. Not so useful on the dirt, but in a rocky place like Iwa it was very good.

For some reason this jutsu seemed familiar. But he couldn't really remember why it was familiar. Shrugging it off as not important he continued practicing the Jutsu, getting pointers from Madara and Hashirama.

By the end of the day he was able to partially merge into the stone. The two boys ate once more, Naruto though this time pulled out his scroll of food and stocked up on Bakudan and Inarizushi, here in Iwa he got it for the same price as everyone else, unlike in konoha where he was charged a few bucks more. When he explained this to the staff they were more than happy to help him. He made sure to leave a giant tip for them for any trouble his request may have caused. They didn't seem to mind though.

The boy after stocking up on food went to his hotel and fell asleep the next day Naruto woke up and headed to the gate, Deidara was waiting for him. The older boy ruffled his hair, "I'll see you next year, un."

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it for the world, and next year I should be a genin!"

Deidara smirked, "I'm hoping to be a jounin by that time."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at the older boy.

The boy laughed. "Goodbye Naruto."

Naruto smiled and Hugged Deidara, "Goodbye Deidara-Nii."

The older boy returned the hug smiling widely.

With that Naruto and Ibiki began their journey back to Konoha.

 **A/n: Hey! Hope you enjoyed, and sorry for the small delay, no excuse other than I forgot!**


	28. Chapter 28

By the time the duo had returned to Konoha Naruto had learned quite a bit about misdirection and even a little bit about mind games to mess with people's heads, he wasn't that good at it yet. But Ibiki said that it took practice. The man offered to continue helping Naruto learn more about word games and mind games, which Naruto happily accepted.

The duo arrived in the hokage's office, "Hello Naruto-kun, welcome back."

Naruto smiled, "It's good to be back home!"

"How was your trip?"

"Good! I'm still in first place!" Naruto said with a thumbs up.

"I'm glad to hear about that, will you tell me what the tournament is about finally?"

"Nope!"

"Ibiki, will you tell me what the tournament is about?"

"You have allowed Naruto-kun to go do the tournament without knowing what it is, for five years?"

The hokage gave a nod.

"No I will not tell you." Ibiki stated flatly.

"Ah well, there's always next year." The hokage said dismissively. "Anything interesting happen?"

Naruto pulled out a tiny black marble out of his pouch. "I got my Triple L Bomb to work!"

"Triple L bomb?"

"Yeah, it's my low level layered bomb. It has three bombs in it, they explode on command. Like, you explode the first one and then you can explode the second one whenever you want, same for the third."

"I see. Anything else?"

"Deidara's art is getting even cooler!"

"That's nice, what jutsu did you win this year?"

"Doton: Hidden in stones jutsu." Naruto answered.

"Interesting, alright then, I guess your ready to go home and tell Jiraiya all about your adventure this year."

"Meh. I guess." Naruto said with a shrug, the pervert was okay most of the time. He just didn't like the fact the man hated Janken, how one could even hate the game was beyond him.

Naruto took his leave though and went to the small house he and Jiraiya lived in. The man came down to investigate the sound of the door opening and smiled at seeing him enter, "Looks like your back from your vacation brat, how was it?"

"Good, I won. Let's continue with my seal training, yeah?"

"Alright fine."

Kurama popped out and jumped up onto the couch to relax. He tended to remain hidden when they were in the village proper, but sometimes he popped out to make a comment or tell Naruto something. Whenever he was in someplace he deemed safe he appeared and roamed around as he pleased.

Soon the rest of December passed. And with the passing of January first the third and final year of the academy was beginning.

This year's focus was Jutsu's while keeping the other skills at the level needed or improving it. The jutsu's that were being taught were known as the Basic seven, one of each element, which Naruto already knew. The other two were the substitution and henge. They were being taught by a teacher known as Iruka and his assistant a woman named Safaia.

And so as Naruto sat next to his two friends, Shino and Hinata he once more dozed the academy away. He played shoji against Shikamaru every month or so. He still occasionally participated in the Shoji tournament, but he never really made it more than halfway through. The competition was very tough indeed.

Anyways it was now march and the academy had just finished for the day, he Shino and Hinata were walking though Konoha to drop Hinata off at her house. "Is that-?" He heard a voice whisper behind him, ignoring his instincts that were telling him to run he continued on his way. After all they had probably spotted Sasuke who was walking across the street from them.

Which was why he was unprepared for the two girls to appear in front of him, "It is Naruto-kun!"

He twitched, "I can't believe we found you! When our parents said we were coming to Konoha to pick up some supplies we had though we might see you, but Konoha is such a big place! We can't believe we actually get to meet you! It's an honour! Will you please sign our poster?!"

"There you are girls! What did we tell you about running off like that." a man said as he appeared, than he spotted Naruto. "Ah! Naruto-sama! I didn't see you here."

Naruto sighed and gave a polite smile, "It's fine, honestly I didn't expect to meet some fans here."

He heard Shino's bugs buzz and what he recognized as laughter, Shino was laughing at him. Hinata though was standing behind him shyly.

He quickly signed the poster's, "It was nice to meet you girls, i hope you enjoy your stay in Konoha." He said politely giving a small bow to the family.

"What was that?" A more familiar voice asked.

Naruto turned to Sasuke who was staring at him in confusion. "None of your business teme," he told him. Naruto didn't like the boy, first he tried to make him choose between shino and him, and then when Naruto does choose Shino, Sasuke spreads rumours about the two. Which didn't really bother them much, but it was annoying.

To the academy and the lower ranking ninja's he was known as the dead last and loser. To the higher ranking ninja's he was known as the bomb maker. To a select few he was known as the spymaster. He was an honorary shinobi of Iwa and famous for being good at cheating in the Janken tournament, and he was also an undercover Anbu for Konoha and infamous for carrying the Kyuubi.

To the clan's he was someone making ripples, and there were thoughts that Naruto would be bringing a new clan to the playing fields, though it was uncertain what the clan would be exactly.

His tightest held secret was his Sharingan, the only people who knew about it were him, Kurama, and the shimmers. Oh and his Jiji knew, but he kept it a secret from the majority of the civilians. He didn't want to be known as a Uchiha or worse being accused of stealing the sharingan, or any of the other bollocks the civilians might do if they found out.

Besides, "A ninja's greatest strength is the ability know one knows about." It was something Tobirama had said. The man agreed with his reasons for keeping the Sharingan a secret.

Which led to his final year of training before he would graduate, which was in october. He still trained at the Anbu headquarters, but that was mostly sparring with other Anbu members, he could only fight at chunin speeds, even if he could process information at Anbu speed, and run at Anbu speed without weights and with chakra. But his body wasn't used to fighting at the higher speeds, just defending against faster opponents. He also trained in utilising four tails of Kurama's cloak, and could now safely use it in a non battle scenario. Such as his bombs. Though he still wasn't allowed to test his bombs here in Konoha. After all the explosions were devastating even to stone. On dirt the ninja's reported the the ground was often twice the crater than on rock. Meaning a T-1 five foot deep ten foot round on solid rock was often ten feet deep and twenty feet round on the dirt.

His seal training continue by Jiraiya and Tobirama. Which he was actually starting to understand some of the stuff his father was going on about in his journal. The journal was about his father's work on the Hiraishin.

" _The seal work for the Hiraishin is simply amazing, I have been studying Tobirama's work on it for quite awhile now and I am only just starting to understand how it had been put together, unfortunately though the seal work on the Hiraishin is user specific, meaning each user of the jutsu has to craft their own seal, though the concept around each seal remains the same. I have begun deconstructing Tobirama's Hiraishin into the separate parts I find. Such as this part, it is a chakra location seal, tiny and miniscule by itself it is actually a central piece to the Hiraishin allowing the user to home in on the location of which the seal is placed on. But this seal is already modified, it needs to be attuned to the individual's chakra, and only that person can feel the chakra location seal at any given location. Unlike the normal version of this seal which sends a small beacon to any ninja able to feel it in a nearby distance._ " The entry goes on theorising how someone might modify the seal to respond to one user. On the page next to the entry was a couple drawings of the seals, one was labeled Tobirama's chakra location seal. The other was labeled Basic Chakra location seal.

Naruto could definitely see that there was a miniscule amount of difference between the two, a few lines added here, a few taken away, with only one new mini seal attached to Tobirama's. It was that Mini seal that Naruto couldn't figure out. His father had on the next page written his success and drew what his modified seal looked like, but didn't state how he was successful. The seal looked exactly like tobirama's except for the fact that the mini seal was different. Which meant that he had to figure out what purpose the mini seal had. He figured it was the main component to locking in the chakra signature of the user and giving the location of the seal to the user only, but he didn't see how the little seal did it.

He decided to start with the theories his father had written about how to make the mini seal. It had taken a few weeks, but he finally got it. The mini seal was created when Naruto mixed a drop of his blood in the ink and channeled chakra into the mini-seal as he drew a basic lock seal. It was after he created this that he saw that Tobirama's and his fathers was exactly the same only both drew the lock seal differently. Nodding he decided to do the same and drew his lock seal in a swirl, similar to the Uzumaki crest. The use of the blood made the lock seal a partial blood seal, luckily though it wasn't anything more complicated than just binding the seal to him as then he wouldn't be able to do it without delving further into blood seals.

He had tested the seal by creating a few of them on slips of paper and placing them in a few locations. As soon as he placed and activated them he could feel tere locations in his mind letting him know where they were at, though it was more of a general sense of location then a specific image. It was at this point he realized why his father had complained about having to memorise the entire elemental nations map. If he could have a mental map of the nations and he connected those sparks of location from where he stood to wherever he was then he would know where he was going if he teleported to a hirishin that was out of sight.

Which was truly amazing that Minato had remembered the entire map and was able to pinpoint which Hiraishin tag was where and accurately teleport to each one. So Naruto started working on being able to memorise the elemental nations.

Tobirama said he was proud of Naruto for trying to figure out the Hiraishin, Naruto hadn't even considered asking the man for help as he wanted to figure it out himself, following the notes his father had left. Tobirama also mentioned that he had never really considered using the hiraishin as Minato had used it.

Naruto didn't know how he would use the Hiraishin if he ever figured out all of the seals and components, but even if he didn't use it in all of his battle like Minato did, it would still be useful to have in case of a tight situation as a way to escape. The next seal in the formation was a blood seal, which Naruto was not allowed to work on yet since he hadn't learned about blood seals.

He was still learning how to wield a gunbai from Madara, which he started carrying on him via a sealed sheath. The sheat was small, only about a foot and a half long and was only as thick as a normal Katana, but the seal work on it allowed Naruto to place the gunbai until until only the handle stuck out. Madara had helped him get a gunbai made out of the same material as his old gunbai which was near indestructible.

His skills with the weapon weren't bad, he mostly could use it to defend himself. He was now learning how to conduct his chakra through the weapon. Hashirama was still working on his taijutsu, though he started teaching him the more attack oriented style of his. Utilizing seals for his gunbai did give him an idea to use that for his gourd so that he didn't have to carry a bigger gourd around to hold more of his Bikaichu.

First though he ran his idea across the Aburame clan who agreed to test it to see if it harmed the bugs before they utilized the idea he had. A normal storage seal wouldn't work though, it had to be a seal that went across an opening much like his sheath to allow something in or out. That was simple the other matter was allowing a living creature to go across through the threshold unharmed. Since the original seal wasn't designed with the living in mind Naruto had to figure out a way to allow the bugs in and out of the expanded space. That would be the complicated way though, Naruto figured out after they realized the seal on his sheath would kill the bugs who tried to enter. No the simple way was to simpley but a basic expansion seal on the gourds to increase their size. That to had its limitations, but Naruto had already experimented with the seal before and it was easy to make it instead of double the capacity nearly ten times the capacity.

So a basic Five galleon gourd was actually able to hold fifty galleons. Naruto decided to use the five galleon gourd as it could be place easily on his back. The Aburame clan hired him to put this seal on some of the gourds.

The only other thing he had down was pull a few pranks, including painting the Hokage monument with his friends by use of his Bikaichu. Shino helped him with his Kikaichu as they had there bugs dip their feet into different color paints before flying onto the hokage monument. The duo did a spectacular job of painting the four hokages to look exactly as they did when they were alive. Shino telling what colors to use where since Naruto couldn't tell what colors were what. By the time Night ended the two had finished and Hinata had one of the most important rolls as she had to use a genjutsu to make everyone think the hokage monument looked normal until the two boys were done.

The next day pandemonium broke out as people realized that someone had painted the Hokage monument, and that they actually made the hokage's look more like 3D paintings. No one suspected the trio of academy students, no one except the Hokage and a few others who knew about Naruto's prankster nature. The only reason they doubted it was Naruto, was because it was common knowledge that he was colorblind. The hokage just figured that Naruto's shimmers helped him.

Finally it came around to graduation. The exam took place at the beginning of October, Iruka pulled him to the side at the end of the class the day before and told him, "Naruto, I know you really want to be a ninja, but with your grades as low as they are from you forgetting to turn in assignments the only way for you to pass would be to get a high score tomorrow."

"Okay sensei! No problem!" Naruto said happily waving the man's concern off.

That night he went to bed excited, tomorrow he would pass the test and become a true ninja of Konoha!

 **A/n: I hope yall are enjoying! There is only one chapter left until the end of part one!**


	29. Chapter 29

Naruto got up the next morning and beamed, today was the day! Opening his food scroll he celebrated with a breakfast of Inarizushi. He loved his scroll. Looking at his closet he picked out one of his nicer coats. He grabbed a random shirt and pants. Grabbing his pouches he attached them to his belt. His five galleon gourd was on his back horizontally. Next he grabbed his gunbai sheath and placed it on his back. He was going to class fully decked out, and ready for anything. He was going to pass this test with flying colors. Even if he would still be deadlast due to him not paying attention. Spending a few moments on his hair he tamed his wild mane. Grinning at his grey reflection he started to head out, but he was stopped by Jiraiya.

"Hey kiddo," the man said smiling.

"Ero-sennin." Naruto greeted back with a grin.

"I just want you to know that even if you fail due to your lack of paying attention I'm still proud of you and will gladly accept you as my apprentice."

"Why don't we just do that anyways?" Naruto asked.

"Because Sensei wants you to learn how to be part of team."

Naruto wrinkled his nose, "I plan on passing anyways, I'm pretty sure Shino and Hinata can be the top of the class. Though Sasuke may win for the top shinobi, he and Shino are pretty close in scores."

"I see, and what if you don't get a team with those two?"

"Eh I don't know. The only people I can't really get along with are Sasuke, Ino, and Sakura. I can sometimes work with the dog boy."

"Alright then, good luck Kiddo." Jiraiya said hugging him.

Naruto smiled and returned it before heading towards the academy.

Sitting down next to Shino and Hinata he smiled at them as they started lightly talking excited for the prospect of becoming full on ninja. Naruto knew he would be dead last, so he wondered who the top shinobi and Kunoichi positions would go to. Sasuke and Shino were pretty close for the Shinobi, and Sakura Ino and Hinata were at the top of the class for Kunoichi.

The first part of the test was a written test which Naruto answered easily, whether by actually knowing the answer, or by having Madara or Hashirama tell him the answer. Soon the papers were taken up and Safaia started grading them while Iruka took them to where the next section of the test would be. It was testing there Bukijutsu skills. Moving targets were lined up and they had to hit four out of five of the moving targets in vital places. They gave the students five kunai and five shuriken to use.

The next portion of the test was a spar against a chunin, who would obviously be going easy on them but still pushing them to see how well there taijutsu was. They had ten minutes each to give a good showing. Naruto fought against the chunin using his mixture of Hashirama and Madara's taijutsu, he went in for quick strikes and then defended himself against the counter attacks.

Finally it was time for the next portion, the ninjutsu test. They were led away from other students one by one. When it came to Naruto's turn they were at a wide open training field that had a water source nearby. "Alright, show us the basic seven ninjutsu."

Naruto nodded and started with Henge, then he did Kwarmi. Holding up one hand sign he did the fireball jutsu. Once more with only one hand sign he quickly spat a windblade making the fireball even larger and bigger. After the fireball disappeared he formed a water wall though he needed half of the hand signs. He followed that with the shock wave, against needing half the hand signs. And then he finished with the earth dome, of which he only needed one hand sign.

Iruka smiled and dismissed him, telling him the results would be given once everyone was done. Naruto returned back to the group as the next person was called. Finally they were led back to the classroom and the two teachers started tallying the results.

The kids anxiously waited. "Congratulations everyone for putting forth the effort into you ninja carrarer. I am proud to announce that all of you have passed the first exam. You are all now probationary genin until you are given your second test. I can not tell you anything about the second test, only that your potential jounin senseis will assign it to you, with that being said you will be given a week off as we determine where to place each student." Safaia said smiling gently.

"Yes, now I am sure you are all curious as to your class top students. This year's top shinobi is Sasuke Uchiha, though it was only a five point difference between him and Shino Aburame. The top kunoichi of the year is Sakura Haruno, though it was a one point difference between her and Hinata Hyuga and two point difference between her and Ino Yamanaka. Congratulations all of you, it has been one of the closest years I have ever seen for the top positions and I wish all of you to continue your hard work. I'm proud to call you my students!" Iruka said smiling at all of them.

The kids cheered, "Sensei! Who's the dead last, I bet it was the fox boy over there." Kiba said giving Naruto a feral grin. The two boys never really spoke much, though they called each other fox boy and dog boy. They didn't get along really well both of them liking to do things in there own ways. They kinda had a rivalry over which animal was better, Naruto of course had to defend foxes. Kiba said dogs were since his clan revolved around having a dog partner.

Iruka sighed, Naruto just grinned, "Of course I'm dead last how could I be anything but? That's the best spot in my opinion."

Kiba scoffed. "How can that be the best spot, the top spot is obviously the best."

"Duh, its the best spot cause I'm in it dog boy." Naruto stated grinning foxily.

"Well you are both correct, Naruto is the dead last." Iruka confirmed with a sigh.

A few kids snickered but Naruto just smirked proudly. They would all realize one day that he had been tricking them all. He was going to become recognized by all of Konoha and ultimately become Hokage.

The class was dismissed. Naruto Shino and Hinata celebrated graduating by going to Ichiraku's. Then the two went to there homes to tell their parents the good news. He went back to his home and told Jiraiya the news. Now that they knew the class rankings it was easy to tell what the most likely teams were. Naruto because he was dead last would be placed on a team with Sasuke and Sakura. And with the Ino-Shika-Cho juniors they would almost certainly be placed on a team. Which meant that Hinata Shino and Kiba would be placed together. The rest of the students were basically just cannon fodder if they passed the second exam, unless they stated developing a unique skill set or became highly proficient in something.

He knew that Ino-Shika-Cho juniors would most likely be specialized in capture and interrogation, just like their parents.

Shino, Kiba, and Hinata would most likely be a tracking team.

His team, he didn't know what his team would be, he himself was pretty decent at causing major amounts of damage with his bombs and he had quite a few ninjutsu to back him up. Sasuke had taken to his clan style very well and was hailed as a Uchiha prodigy by the civilians since he had already unlocked his Sharingan and had it at three tomoe. It was Sakura he didn't know much about, frankly she seemed skilled in all of the stuff taught to the academy students, but he didn't know if she trained in something else. If she even bothered training while not at the academy.

It was likely his team would be a heavy assault squad with Sakura providing backup and support. Shrugging off his thoughts he continued on his seal work. He was now learning about blood seals and there difference from regular seals.

A knock on the door interrupted his work. He heard the door open before, "It's your friends Naruto!" Jiraiya called up to him.

"Coming!" Naruto shouted back as he bookmarked and closed the book. Going down the stairs he saw his friends sitting on the couch.

"Hey Shino, Hinata, whats up?"

"The Akimichi have called for a celebratory feast to the clans with passing children. They asked that we inform you that you and your guardian are invited, since we're your friends." Hinata said softly.

"Cool, when's the feast?"

"Tonight at 6, it is a semi-formal occasion." Shino stated.

"Neat, wait why am I being invited? I don't have a clan." Naruto questioned.

"You may not have a clan, but you are still well known and respected amongst most of the clans." Jiraiya answered.

"Ah. Okay then. I assume its at the Akimichi clan grounds?"

"Correct."

"I'll be there."

"I'm sorry I didn't get top kunoichi Naruto-kun." Hinata said looking down.

"That's fine! It was amazing, you three girls had such a tight competition for that top spot, and you were only one point behind Sakura!"

The girl smiled.

"Well, what do you say we have a friendly 3 way spar before getting ready for the feast?" Naruto asked.

The two nodded and the three went outside. "Taijutsu only. If you are pushed out of bounds you lose. If your knocked to the ground you lose."

With that the three spared, Naruto and Shino teamed up to take down Hinata, since she was the best at taijutsu between the three. Naruto was a close second though, but he didn't specialise in taijutsu like the Hyuga did. The two boys managed to tag team her and kicked her out of the ring they had made. The girl watched as the two boys faced each other and Naruto made a quick attack. Shino barely managed to dodge, even though he expected Naruto's quickness.

The two boys traded blows for a few minutes before Naruto managed to slide Shino's legs out from underneath him causing the boy to fall to the ground.

He helped the boy up and then the trio separated to go get ready for the fast approaching feast. Naruto got dressed in his semi formal clothes. He left his gunbai and pouches at home, though he brought his gourd, over the years with his colony he grew used to them always being close and now never left home without his colony.

The Aburame completely understood his feelings. Naruto and Jiraiya left the house and headed towards the Akimichi clan grounds.

Once there they were welcomed in. "Greetings Jiraiya! Naruto-san!" Choza greeted the two shaking their hands.

"I have to say those scrolls you made for us are one of the best things ever invented!" Choza told them enthusiastically.

"I'm glad you liked them." Naruto replied with a smile.

"Well I got others to go greet, feel free to grab a plate of food and sit down."

The duo went and grabbed a plate helping themselves to the many delicious food items the Akimichi had prepared for the feast.

Naruto once he fixed his plate went to the table which had many chairs and some others already sitting, neither Shino nor Hinata were here yet though. "Oi! Fox boi!" Kiba called out to him.

"What dog boy?" Naruto asked heading over to him.

"I saw you the other day with a fox around your neck! Why didn't you tell me that you have a fox ninken?"

"Cause I don't."

"Oh yeah?! Then why did I hear him speak."

Kurama formed himself sitting on the table. " **Does that answer your questions mutt?** " Kurama stated.

"Uzumaki-san. What is that?" A woman with a resemblance to Kiba asked.

"Kurama, he's using a fox-bug clone." Naruto said dismissively.

The woman looked at Jiraiya who just smirked.

The fox sniffed as it looked at the food, before he glared at the food. Naruto snorted seeing Kurama lick his snout. The biju glared at him before dispersing the bug clone.

"Who's Kurama?" Kiba asked.

Naruto shrugged, "The fox you just met."

"That's not what I meant, how does your bugs form a completely different living entity then you?"

"Cause my Bikaichu are special." Naruto replied dismissively.

Kiba pouted. Soon more quests arrive and Hinata and Shino come sit next to him. The feast continued on for a couple hours, people eating and mingling together. The 8 kids who just graduated were congratulated often and cheers were heard for them.

Finally it was time to go home for the night. The rest of the week was passed in Nervous excitement as the kids waited to hear who there potential sensei's were going to be and just who they were teamed with, even if most of the clan kids suspected who they would be teamed with. Finally it was the night before team announcements and Naruto fell asleep slowly anxious to truly begin his ninja career.

 **A/N: And thats a wrap, this is the end of part one of my story. And as such the daily updates will stop until I have written most of Part two. I will give you a fair warning that the next update won't be anytime soon. I have quite a few other story Ideas I want to work on. This has been my longest story I have ever written though and I am shocked by how far it has come. I may or may not edit this and update chapters. If any of you want to write an omake for this, please feel free. A reviewer mentioned the idea of Kurama's misadventures. Which I quite like and might write a few Omakes of it myself. THANK YOU! I really can't say that enough for how happy I am that you guys liked this crazy little idea I had.**

 **When I am ready to post Part two it will still be on this story, I will not be starting a new story just for part two.**


	30. Chapter 30: Act Two

Naruto sat in the academy next Shino and Hinata. He could feel Shino's bugs buzzing in excitement. His own were stirred up as well feeling his excitement through the link they had. Today was the start of their ninja career. They all waited eagerly as after another few moments he heard two screeches and Ino and Sakura were at the door shoving at each other.

"Hmpf, that Yamanaka clan heir is pathetic." Madara grouched from behind him.

Naruto silently agreed though he would never say such a fact outloud. To be nothing more than a fangirl, he shuddered, he didn't know how Sakura could beat Hinata or even Ino for the position of top kunoichi, but he was about to find out since they would most likely be team members. Finally Iruka came in and told them all to take their seats. The kids did Sakura sitting next to Sasuke and Ino sitting next to her.

"Alright class thank you for your patients as we form the teams you will be placed on, now as I'm sure none of you want to hear a super long boring speech, I will simply say congratulations, and I wish you many years of success. You all are now about to take your second test to become Genin of Konoha. Team One…" Iruka started then went to list off the teams.

"Team Seven will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki. Your potential Jounin instructor will be Kakashi Hatake."

The girl cheered when she heard her name called with Sasuke's then she glared at him. "Sensei! Why is the dead last with us?" She asked.

"Well the top male and female are paired with the dead last in order to balance the teams out…" He said to them. The girl, who Madara had once told him had pink hair, scowled.

"Alright continuing on, Team Eight will be Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka, your potential Jounin instructor will be Kurenai."

"Team Ten will be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi, your potential jounin instructor is Asuma Sarutobi."

"What's team nine?" One of the students asked.

"Team nine is still in rotation from last year." Iruka answered.

"Now, your potential jounin instructors should be here shortly…" Iruka sighed, "At the latest they will be here in three hours. Please be patient if your jounin instructor takes awhile." With that he turned and walked out the door. They could hear him saying something before some people came in.

A few minutes passed before Naruto saw a familiar person, "Hey Asuma!" He greeted with a wave.

The man waved back, "Hey Naruto." With that he picked up his students.

Naruto settled in for a wait, knowing that Kakashi would take forever to arrive. He had spent some time with the man after the man guarded him, but since Kakashi retired from the Anbu he hadn't seen much of him.

Eventually they were the last team left in the room. "Hey Sasuke, Sakura, would you like to play Janken?" He asked as he quickly became bored.

One shouted no and one grunt was his answer. "Man Sasuke, your father is much more sociable than you." Naruto commented trying to rile the other boy.

Sasuke glared at him.

Naruto just smirked back his arms crossed.

Hashirama sighed, "Naru-chan takes after you so much Dara-chan."

Madara smirked, "As he should, after all I am the best."

Hashirama just groaned.

With a shrug Kurama formed himself and the two started playing Janken, though Naruto didn't cheat against the biju, mostly cause the fox-bug clone could see the shimmers as well. The two played for an hour with both losing and winning at the same pace before Kurama got bored.

" **So the pink hair thing and the uchiha brat are your teammates?** " Kurama asked looking at them.

"Yep."

Sasuke glared at them his sharingan popping into his eyes. Kurama hissed at him, " **I hate Uchiha.** "

"I know you do." Naruto said rolling his eyes.

Kurama glared at Sasuke before dismissing himself again.

"What was that Baka?" Sakura asked.

"Fox-bug clone." Naruto answered with a shrug as he pulled out his seal book and continued reading on blood seals and the dangers of using them.

Unlike a normal seal, a blood seal was made of a users blood and chakra, the seal was connected to the user permanently once activated, meaning that before you activated the seal it had to be perfect or the seal could seriously hurt you. These seals were often used on prisoners to tell the warden the exact location of where they were. These seals if designed properly could also be used to enhance the users strength. It could also be used as a means of control. The book mentioned a seal called the caged bird seal, which was branded onto a person like a slave mark and if someone knew the control sequence they could activate the seal to cause intense pain to the bearer of the seal. Because the seal was a blood seal there was no way to remove it without causing the death of the bearer of the seal. Even if you removed the physical embodiment of the seal or tried to modify the physical portion the effect would still be there because the seal was etched into the bearer's very essence. A blood seal was usually a color other than black to show that even if you tried to erase or destroy its physical appearance it would still be in effect.

Naruto wondered if this meant that even in death the bearer of the seal still had it on them. Most blood seals were used as a punishment to someone else with others being able to control the seal to inflict pain of some sort or even death. Some blood seals though were able to be of benefit, but if done incorrectly could cause injury or death which was why the use of blood seals was not recommended for experimentation. Some blood seals could be used as regular seals, though there effects were more limited than the normal seal, such was the gravity seal. That seal was used to make gravity seem heavier to the user of the seal. And they could increase it in levels when they felt they were ready to move on. The blood seal had much the same effect, except it gradually increased the gravity by itself as the user became accustomed to the previous amount. Because the user of the seal is the same person wearing the seal in this case, they can easily turn the seal on and off.

When the seal turns off and back on the seal doesn't go to the same amount it was at previously, instead it is lowered by a little bit and works back up to where the user left off before continuing to go up. Naruto thought the gravity seal was interesting and that he might have to try it, though only after talking with Jiraiya about it.

"My first impression of you two is your boring." Kakashi said pointing to Sasuke and Sakura.

"Huh! What about Naruto-baka!" Sakura shouted.

"Hi Kaka-chan!" Naruto said waving as he looked up from his book.

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes." The man said disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Sasuke and Sakura got up and ran to get to the roof in time. Naruto raised an eyebrow as he pulled himself out the window and walked up the wall. "I knew you would have enough sense to walk up the wall." Kakashi said reading his orange book.

Hashirama glared at him for reading the stuff in front of Naruto while Madara just grinned as he read of Kakashi's shoulder. Naruto rolled his eyes and said, "You're ruining the innocence of little kids reading that trash in front of them." He said his posture changed to Hashirama's as he mimicked the man's tone and voice.

Kakashi just gave an eye grin and shrugged.

"You can be really creepy when you say what I'm going to say before I even get a chance to say it, you know that right?" Hashirama said with a pout.

Naruto just beamed, he pulled out his book and started reading as they waited for his teammates.

Finally Sasuke and Sakura made it up, panting and out of breath, they glared at seeing Naruto sitting there.

"Now that you two are finally here, why don't you introduce yourselves."

"What do you mean Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Well, I want you to tell me your likes dislikes, dreams and all that." He said as he put his book away.

"Can you give us an example?"

"Hmm, I suppose, my name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes aren't that important, and my dream… I haven't given it much thought."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the man who just gave an eye smile. "Why don't you go pinky."

"My name is Sakura Haruno, I like…" She giggled as she looked at Sasuke. "I hate Naruto-baka!" She screeched glaring at him. Naruto pouted dramatically crouching as he bent down from where he sat to draw circles on the ground. "And my dreams are…" She blushed and glanced at Sasuke.

"Fangirl scum." Madara commented crossing his arms and glaring at her.

Naruto gave a small nod in agreement.

"Next up is broody." Kakashi said lazily.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, not broody. I like my clan. I dislike those who think we are weak. I have no dream, instead my goal is to kill Itachi and bring him to justice for his slaughter of my clan." Sasuke said darkly.

Naruto raised a mental eyebrow at that, 'I guess Fugaku decided not to tell Sasuke the truth about the massacre.'

"Next up is Naruto."

"Why do you call him by his name and not us?" Sakura asked.

"Because I know Naruto," Kakashi answered.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like alot of stuff. I dislike those who don't understand the difference between a seal and the item it holds. My dream is to be recognized by Konoha and to become Hokage!" Naruto declared smiling.

Kakashi gave a smile at him. Sasuke scoffed at him and Sakura rolled her eyes, "As if anybody would want a loser like you to be hokage."

"I honestly don't know if you guys are going to pass the second test, remember your not genin until I give the say so. That being said your test will take place tomorrow on training field seven. Out of all the teams the success rate is only 33% for this second test. I would recommend that you don't eat, less you throw up. But hey what do I know? I'm only your potential teacher." With that he was gone. Three pieces of paper fluttering to the ground.

They each picked up a paper, it had more details on the test including the meeting time. "Do you guys want to go eat something and discuss our plan for this," Naruto glanced down at the paper, "Survival training, our sensei is going to be putting us through?"

The two ignored him and walked off.

"Alright… I'll see ya tomorrow then." He said with a sigh as they left.

"You know, I kinda starting to wish I had at least put in enough effort to not be dead last." Naruto deadpanned.

Hashirama just grinned, "But you didn't so now you got to work with your teammates."

"But what if they don't agree to work with me?"

"Then they fail and you become the hermits apprentice." Madara commented with a shrug.

"True, I suppose it isn't that big of a deal. Do you think there going to take Kaka-sensei's words at face value and not eat?"

"The fangirl will most likely not eat, as for the brat he might if his father interferes, if not then he will also probably not eat." Madara commented.

"Well I definitely plan to eat, and I'll have my food scroll and ramen scroll on me."

"I wonder which test Kakashi will give you." Hashirama mused.

"The bell test." A voice answered them.

They turned to see a girl about Naruto's age. "Really? So he's using my old test then, yikes this isn't looking good for your team Naru-chan."

"Thank you for the information, what's your name?" He asked.

"Taoreta, I was a graduate last year." She replied sadly.

Naruto bit his lip, "What happened?"

She shrugged, "My team failed the second test, I… I'm ashamed to admit that I was one of the reasons for that. When Kakashi pointed out why he failed us, I broke."

"I'm sorry to hear that…" Naruto replied softly.

"I have only really started to learn what being a good person is now. I am ready to pass on, but I was curious as to if your team will pass this year unlike my year."

"I hope we can, but my teammates don't care for me much. I guess I will see you around tomorrow?"

The girl nodded before she turned and left.

The trio were silent as they went to Ichiraku's and Naruto ate some ramen. Then he went back home and asked Jiraiya about the blood gravity seal.

"That seal? Yeah it's one of the medium blood seals, though it is by far one of the most useful of the lot. It's pretty safe as well compared to most other blood seals. Once your able to draw the seal perfectly without messing up with normal ink, then you can do it on yourself." Jiraiya told him.

"Cool." with that Naruto went to his room and started practicing the seal. A few hours later he was able to draw the seal without messing up.

Grabbing an empty ink bottle he winced as he cut his palm deeply. He let the blood drip into the bottle, a few minutes later the bottle was a forth of the way full and the wound had been healed by Kurama.

Next he channeled his chakra into the blood, it moved a little bit before settling back done. Dipping a clean inkbrush into it he started to carefully draw the seal on his wrist. When he was done he felt a slight increase in gravity, nothing too noticeable though.

Sealing his blood ink up he carefully washed the brush he had used, he had to be careful to make sure no one could get there hands on the blood ink lest they use it against him. He looked at the seal on his wrist, to him it was a dark grey. "The seal is a dark blue color." Hashirama informed him.

Naruto gave a nod. He could now remove the seal on his skin if he wanted to, and it would have no effect on the seal since it was bound to him. But he kinda liked having the seal on his skin. Smiling he went to where Jiraiya was working on writing another of those trashy novels and showed him.

"Good job kiddo." Jiraiya told him looking over the seal. "I've removed mine long ago, but this is the same color as mine was, I assume those spirits of yours already told you the color."

"Yep! And cool."

"You better go to sleep, you have a busy day ahead of you." Jiraiya said glancing at the clock.

"Alright then, goodnight Ero-sennin."

"Goodnight brat."

Naruto went back to his room and changed into his night clothes and fell asleep.

 **A/N: WOOO And Gosutoai is back again! I will try and update it everyday, for at least a week... I'm only guaranteeing 5 chapters though. (Because that's all I have pre-written) I've roughly fixed the first six chapters for all of you who hated the other pov's, so I cut them out. Anyways I hope that you enjoy this. If I get into a good writing flow for this again, well who knows what will happen. I hope you enjoy ACT TWO of Gosutoai!**


	31. Chapter 31

The next day he woke up and got dressed in his full equipment, as he ate breakfast Hashirama informed him of how his bell test went down, but he had used his because the genin he had been given were all friends with each other and he wanted to test if they would put their friendship in front of their ninja career.

Naruto made his way to the training field and saw that Sasuke and Sakura already waiting. "Hey guys! So did you eat breakfast or nah?" He questioned.

"Of course I didn't eat breakfast! Kakashi-sensei said to not eat." Sakura stated. Sasuke simply nodded his agreement with Sakura.

"He only suggested that we don't eat, I would much rather be fully energized for whatever he throws at us then to be starving and distracted." Naruto told them, "With that being said, and since we can expect to wait for another few hours would you guys like some food? I have quite a few different options, ramen, Inarizushi, Bakudan, some barbecue..." He listed of some of the food he had.

Sakura wrinkled her nose, "Do you have anything healthy?"

"Well, I have some salad. I also have some rice. " He said thinking over his food items, he tended not to eat it much, but it was something Jiraiya forced him to eat occasionally.

"I'll take the salad." Sakura finally said as her stomach rumbled.

Sasuke nodded his agreement.

Naruto pulled out his food scroll and opened it up. He pulled out two sets of chopsticks from one of the seals and handed them over. "So all you have to do is dip the chopstick into the seal to pull out some food." Naruto said demonstrating as he pulled out a bit of rice from that seal. "Feel free to eat anything in the seal."

The two stared at the scroll in shock. Hesitantly Sakura dipped her chopsticks into the seal labeled salad and pulled out a few leaves and a tomato. She ate it then blinked, "This is good, do you have any dressings?"

"Only ranch and balsamic vinegar." Naruto answered pointing at the two seals. He unsealed a bowl, "Feel free to fill it up with salad and then pour the dressing onto it." He said unsealing the ranch bottle.

Sasuke was still eating directly from the seal, though Naruto noticed that more often then not he had tomatoes in his chopsticks. Sakura filled the bowl up halfway before pouring some ranch on it. "Where did you get this scroll? This is unlike any other preserving scrolls I've seen." Sasuke asked.

"I made it, I'm a bit of a seal user. I made this last year when I wanted to always have popcorn on hand." He mentioned.

Sasuke just nodded. They continued eating for a little bit before they finished. "Good now can we discuss what we are going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well Kaka-sensei said that it was a survival exercise, yeah? Which means he's going to put us through a test where either our skills will be tested, or our actual survival skills in how well we will be able to survive from having to forage for food and stuff. Since I doubt it's the second one he is probably going to be testing our skills."

"So I'll just show him that i'm skilled enough and then I'll pass." Sasuke retorted with a frown.

"Do you think you're strong enough to beat a jounin?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke grunted.

"I don't know how he plans on testing our skills, but if we three combine our skillet then we're more likely to pass the test then if we each try to do it individually, I mean we were made into a team for a reason yeah?" Naruto asked.

Sakura gave a nod, "Of course we were made onto a team, all ninja's start out as a genin team, the only exception is when someone requests that they have a student for an apprenticeship."

Sasuke frowned at this but he did nod in confirmation. Naruto inwardly smirked, good if he could get them to realize that all genin were in teams of three then maybe they could actually pull this off.

"Alright then, so let's see what skills we have to work with then. Sakura, why don't you tell us what you think is everybody's strong point is. Sasuke I would like you to tell what you think everybody's weak point is. Then starting with me we will go over what we think is our strongest and weakest point."

The other two nodded in agreement, "Sasuke-kun's strongest point is his ninjutsu skills, he knows more jutsu's then anyone else I know, and he has the sharingan. Naruto… you never really showed much in the academy, but you were always good at taijutsu. My strongest point would be my brain." She said.

Sasuke grunted, "Sakura's weakest point would be her lack of stamina and her fangirlism, Naruto…" He frowned as he looked at the boy, "His lack of trust in other people." He finally said. Naruto shrugged at that. "Mine would be chakra control."

"Alright, I believe my strongest point to be my explosions. Though I'm not allowed to use anything except for the low yield in friendly battles. So my taijutsu would be my second strongest point. My weakest point is genjutsu's." His other weak point was chakra control though it wouldn't seem like it. He may know multiple chakra exercises but that really only gave him the control of a chunin, instead of an Anbu, such was the curse of a large amount of chakra.

The other two looked at him for a moment. Then Sakura started "My strongest point is like I said my brain, and… I agree with Sasuke that my weakest point is my stamina."

"My strongest point is my sharingan and ninjutsu repertoire, closely followed behind by my shurikenjutsu skills. My weakest is like I said Chakra control."

"Alright, now is there anything else anybody thinks about each others skills?"

The two shook there head. "Alright, Sakura since we all admit that your strongest point is your brain how about you be the team strategist?"

She nodded and took a deep breath, "Right once we learn what our sensei is going to test with us we should get away and meet to plan our course of action."

Naruto smiled at her as she looked at them. "Where will we meet then?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura paused frowning. "Kaka-sensei won't be here for another hour at least, we can take a quick scouting around the training field." Naruto suggested.

"That sounds good."

The three went and scouted the training field before returning back to where they had been earlier. "Where the river bends there is some good hiding spots where we can meet up." Sakura suggested.

The two boys gave a nod, "After sensei gives us our test we will meet there and discuss our plan then yeah?"

"Agreed." Sasuke muttered.

Sakura nodded.

With their plan in place the three probationary genin waiting for their sensei to arrive. Finally three hours after the scheduled meeting time he arrived in a swirl of leaves. Casually reading his book. Hashirama sighed in disappointment.

"Hello!" The man greeted looking up with an eye smile. "Now we are going to begin your second test." He said putting his book away as he pulled out two bells. He shook them gently causing a chime to ring out. "These bells are your objective. Get a bell and you become a genin. Simple yeah?"

The three potential gening slowly nodded, it did seem simple. "But sensei, there's only two bells." Sakura pointed out.

"Yep! Which means…" He trailed off looking at them expectantly.

Naruto paused as he remembered one of Ibiki's lessons, even as Sakura said, "Only two of us can pass?"

Kakashi gave an eye smile, which Sasuke and Sakura took for a confirmation. "That's a lie." Naruto replied crossing his arms.

"Sakura, remember what you said earlier." She and Sasuke frowned as he said that.

"Hmm, well besides for that, the person who doesn't get a bell will be tied to a post as the other two eat. If none of you get a bell then it's up to me who eats and who doesn't before I fail you all." He said with an eye smile.

"Come at me with the intent to kill… the only thing banned is Naruto's higher explosives. The test ends at Midday" Kakashi stated as he tied the bells onto his belt.

Naruto pouted.

"Begin!" He stated.

The three kids disappeared. Naruto before he went to the meeting spot created a clay clone of himself, utilizing his low yield explosives.

He made his way to the spot and was slightly surprised to find Sasuke and Sakura both there. "Alright guys, so what's our plan to get the bells?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke frowned, "There's only two bells, there is no need for three of us to work together if only two of us are going to pass."

"If you will recall, never actually confirmed that only two of us will pass, he trailed of letting you draw your own conclusions. Sakura you stated earlier that all genin teams had three members yeah? So why would there be one with only two?"

Her eyes widened, "The true test is to to see if we will work together then."

Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Right, if that's the case, how are we going to get the bells?"

"Sasuke will use his ninjutsu's to attack Kakashi. Naruto, he said you can't use your high yield explosives, which means you can use low yield, correct?" Naruto nodded in confirmation. "Alright So Naruto will throw explosions to keep Kakashi on edge from having to protect himself on two fronts. When I get a chance I will throw a kunai to try and get the bells detached from his belt. Your two goal is to get him so distracted that he doesn't notice the bells disappearing. Once he no longer has the bells on him lead him away and I will grab the bells. Then you two get yourselves away from him and come find me." She said confidently for a moment before she bit her lip. "If you two think it will work that is."

The two boys nodded and then an explosion ringed out, "That was my explosive clay clone. We better split." Naruto told them.

The three potential genin split apart. Soon Naruto found himself at the edge of a clearing as Kakashi calmly stood in the center.

A moment later Sasuke came out his Sharingan active as he started forming hand signs. Naruto reached into his pouch and pulled out some low yield marbles. He tossed them out and exploded them with a silent Katsu whenever Kakashi got close to one of them.

"Interesting tactic." Kakashi muttered as he substituted with a log to get away from one of Sasuke's fireballs.

Naruto tossed out another handful of the marbles. Occasionally Naruto noticed some Kunai and Shuriken pass by, but none of them ever hit the string of the bells, though some were being thrown by Sasuke.

He threw his own just to add another layer of distraction as he created a couple more clay clones. He also made a couple earth clones to mix in with them. He threw even more explosions silently chanting Katsu as he moved his hands to the cross position.

Finally Naruto noticed that one of the bells were cut free. Sasuke must of noticed as well because he started trying to mush Kakashi away. Naruto helped as well as the two moved Kakashi away from the clearing. One bell was better than no bell after all. One of his clay clones exploded and Kakashi destroyed a rock clone.

The two managed to push Kakashi away from the clearing and after another minute the two stopped there attack and fled back to Sakura who was holding the bell.

Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke and a second later the timer went off. "Congratulations Sakura you got a bell." he said with an eye smile.

He then tied Naruto to the post.

"Now this is quite interesting, only one of you managed to get a bell-"

"Actually all of us managed to get a bell." Sasuke interrupted smirking.

"Oh? And how is that?"

"Because we all worked together in order to get the bell from you. You only said we had to get the bell, not that we had to keep it." Sakura answered handing the bell to Sasuke.

"Sakura was our tactician who created the plan and then we worked together to execute it" Naruto told him smirking. Sasuke placed the bell on top of Naruto's head, said boy rolled his eyes.

"I see," Kakashi stated looking at all of them. "Hmm, well I suppose you three might still have a chance to pass. Just answer me this, what is the most important thing to a ninja?"

Sakura frowned and looked at the two boys, who nodded to her to answer. "Is it teamwork sensei?"

"Sasuke, Naruto?" He asked.

"Teamwork." Both boys agreed with Sakura, afterall she was the brains of the three.

Kakashi gave them an eye grin, "Congratulations, you three pass. Ninja who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum. I did that once and it cost me my best friend." Kakashi spoke quietly.

"You may not fully like each other, but your a team now, and I expect you three to act like it, I don't care if it costs you the mission your team comes before everything else, do you understand?"

"Understood!" The three shouted.

"Good, now since you three pass, lets go get some food." Kakashi said with an eye smile as he cut Naruto free.

The three students followed there new sensei to the ever popular barbeque shop. The three ate lunch together before returning to the training field. "Alright, we're going to go over your full skillset now. I want you to list each skill branch, ninjutsu, taijutsu etc, and how proficient you are in them for a genin. For example my ninjutsu is highly skilled, while my kenjutsu is my weakest skill. List only the skills you use. Sasuke."

"Ninjutsu, highly skilled. Taijutsu, above average. Genjutsu, below average. Bukijutsu, above average. Chakra control, weakest skill."

"Good, slightly above average across the board, we can work on chakra control. Next, Sakura."

"Ninjutsu, average. Taijutsu, below average. Genjutsu, average. Bukijutsu, average. Chakra control, highly skilled. My weakest skill is my stamina."

"Anything unique?" Kakashi asked.

"No."

"We will have to find you something so your not a completely average ninja. Finally Naruto."

"Ninjutsu, highly skilled. Taijutsu, above average. Genjutsu, weakest skill. Bukijutsu, average. Chakra control, chunin level, I need help to figure out how to better control it. Explosions, highly skilled. Kenjutsu, above average. Bikaichu, below average. Fuinjutsu, above average. Janken, Number one!" Naruto finished with a grin and a victory sign.

"Alright, so we have to find someway for you to get better at genjutsu's. What sword do you use for kenjutsu?"

"Not a sword," Naruto replied with a shrug.

Kakashi just nodded.

"Alright, that's all for the day, I have to go and make a plan for how we will take your training. See you tomorrow." He stated and disappeared with a poof of smoke.

"So what are your high yield explosions?" Sasuke asked.

"There my T-1 and up bombs, I'm not allowed to use them in konoha. Anyways, my godfather is waiting to hear if I pass or not so i'm heading out, see ya later." He said turning and walking off.

He heard Sakura ask, "Did you know he had a godfather?" and Sasuke grunt a no in response.

He continued towards the house and entered, "Hey Jiraiya! Team seven passed! I'm now officially a gening of Konoha!"

"That's good brat! What test did Kakashi give you?"

"The bell test."

The man guaffaled, "I see the tradition has continued then, that's good."

"I'm going to go continue my study on blood seals, once I finish the book I'm learning, I'm going to see if I can figure out the next seal for making the Hiraishin."

"Be careful" Jiraiya warned needlessly.

"I know." Naruto told him.

The rest of the day he studied blood seals and then as night fell he ate dinner and went to sleep.

 **A/n: And here is another chapter. Some of you may be** **disappointed** **that I didn't change the teams, but I want to show Naruto** **interacting** **with people he** **doesn't** **really like.**


	32. Chapter 32

The next few days passed by normally, with Kakashi just testing them to see there skills in action, but today was Naruto's birthday, Jiraiya made sure the invites were sent to the normal people, but Naruto was going to invite Sasuke and Sakura over personally once team training was done. He went and they did there normal training, Sasuke on chakra control, Sakura on stamina, and him on genjutsus. Finally team training was done.

"Kaka-sensei already knows, but today is my birthday, I'm having a party at my house, would you two like to come?"

"Sure."

Naruto smiled, "It is a semi-casual event, and it begins at six, I look forward to seeing you there." He said.

He went back home as he and Jiraiya worked to finish the last minute preparations. Finally people started arriving. Hinata came with her father, Shino came with his father, Sasuke came with Fugaku who was always invited. Kakashi came as did Ino-shika-cho and the juniors. Guy and Asuma arrived and even Ibiki came, though this was his first year invited. Finally Sakura arrived. She seemed stunned when she came in to see how many people were actually in his house.

"Hello Sakura." He greeted. "Please enjoy yourself while you are here, the main event will begin in at seven."

"I- what is this?"

"My birthday party."

"There's so many people here." She said looking around.

Madara scoffed a bit in the background. Hashirama cuffed him. He glared at Hashirama. Naruto ignored them as he focused on Sakura.

"Yeah, I guess, some of the parents are invited with the kids, since it would be rude to only invite the heir of the clan and not the clan head." Naruto told her.

She blinked, "What do you mean?"

"Ah, I forgot your not apart of a clan, or have any teaching into clan politics. Piece of advice Sakura, if you really want to have a chance of marrying Sasuke, you should learn the clan politics." He told her.

"Uzumaki-san." Ibiki greeted with a nod.

"Ibiki-san! How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, and you?"

"Fine fine, this is Sakura Haruno." Naruto replied introducing her to him. "Sakura this is Ibiki Morino."

He dipped his head in acknowledgement towards her. "I only came to wish you a happy birthday, I have left a gift on the table for you. I will see you next week Uzumaki-san."

"Alright then, see ya next week Ibiki-san." Naruto replied back as the man nodded and left.

Sakura frowned a bit, "He seemed…" she shrugged unable to find the word.

"To the point?" Naruto questioned with a small smirk. "He can be sometimes, if you ask him a question, don't expect for it to be answered in the way you want." He said with a chuckle.

She just blinked. She watched Naruto as he greeted Asuma. "Will I be expected to do any political stuff here?" She asked afterwards

"Not particularly, they will know your not from a clan, just be polite, always address the clan heads with their clan name and the -sama honorific unless you are on friendly terms with them. Your a kid, and not a clan heir, so you aren't expected to know any of the formal nicietys and all that." He told her.

"If you're really worried about it, maybe you should ask Sasuke to tutor you, ask it like this, first bow to him then say, 'Sasuke-san, I would like to request your tutorship in politics.' He should be able to help you get your foot into the door." Naruto said with a smile with a small wink he leaned closer and whisper, "And you might find yourself alone with him, you could use this opportunity to better know him as a friend, after all if you know what he likes…" Naruto trailed off as he leaned back. He was using the same trick Kakashi had tried to use on the bell test. He was letting her draw opinion of what he meant. Sure it could be taken that if she knows what he likes then she can make herself seem more appealable to Sasuke, or if she knows what he likes she might just find that she doesn't actually love the uchiha clan heir. Still by doing this he was able to get into her good books.

He watched for a moment as she went over and bowed to Sasuke. "Greetings Uzumaki-san." A voice spoke from next to him.

Turning he gave a small bow, "Greetings Hyuga-sama, I hope you are enjoying yourself."

"It is adequate, I hear you have made genin under Hatake."

"I have, I am now a member of team seven." Naruto answered with a small tilt of his head in the direction of Sasuke and Sakura.

"How is your team, I have heard that you and the Uchiha boy tend to not get along."

"It has been fine, we get along for the sake of our team, but usually as soon as the training ends we go our separate ways." Naruto answered.

"I see, Hinata was disappointed to not be on your team." he commented lightly. Warning bells started ringing in Naruto's head.

"It was a shame that we were unable to be on a team as we had wanted, but at least she and Shino could be on a team together."

The hyuga clan head stared at him for a moment. "Good evening Naruto." Shino said appearing next to him.

Naruto gave a polite bow to Hiashi, "If you will excuse me, I must speak with my other guests."

The hyuga clan head gave a small nod and went over to Shibi. Naruto gave a small sigh of relief as he turned to Shino. "Hey Shino, thanks for that. I have a feeling Hyuga-sama is planning something."

"It would not be a surprise." Shino replied back.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, Hinata is of age for marriage contracts to start being drafted if she has not had a contract set for her at birth." Shino told him.

Naruto shook his head, "I'm not interested in marriage," He said wrinkling his nose.

He hear shino's bugs buzz in laughter. He pouted at the boy, "Yeah yeah, laugh it up."

The party continue on for a little longer and Naruto noticed that his jiji arrived a few minutes before seven came and a big cake was revealed. Jiraiya grabbed him and led him to the front where they stood and clinked the fork against the glass. "Thank you all for coming, today is the twelfth birthday of my godson, Naruto Uzumaki. Let's all wish him a happy birthday!" He said throwing his arm around the boy who rolled his eyes.

Shouts of happy birthday were called out to him. Naruto took the knife and cut the first slice. Soon other people came up and cut into the cake. Naruto made his way over to the third, behind him stood Tobirama. "Hey jiji!" Naruto said with a smile.

"Hello Naruto-kun, how is your birthday?"

"Good!"

"That's good to hear, I was wondering if you will be going to the tournament this year?"

"Of course, even if I have to use up my vacation days to take the tournament, I don't want to lose my position!"

"I see, I still have to determine who your guard is this year."

"Don't already have a person in mind to tell you what the tournament is?" Naruto said with a teasing grin.

"If you can convince Ibiki to not tell me, I don't think there is anybody I can send who will tell me." Sarutobi said with a chuckle.

"Well, I remember when the birthdays used to just be me and you!" The old man chuckled, "Now look at you," The old man smiled, "You're well on your way to becoming Hokage." the man said ruffling the boy's hair.

Naruto beamed his heart feeling warm. "Thank's jiji." he said softly, grateful to the man who had looked after him.

The man nodded and went to mingle amongst the other guests. The party continued for another hour with the guests mingling. Some coming and talking to him congratulating him for becoming a genin. Others mostly hanging back since they were only there because politics. Naruto made it a point to at least say hello with everyone and exchange some small talk before moving on.

Eventually the guest all left and Naruto collapsed onto the couch exhausted. "Finally they're gone, now we can see what your haul is this year." Jiraiya said with a grin pointing to the table which held quite a few presents.

Naruto grabbed the largest present first, looking at the tag on it, the present was from the Ino-shika-cho alliance and the juniors. Opening it he found a nice well crafted Shoji board. He was quickly able to spot that it was custom made as it had an engraving of the Uzumaki swirl on it. Smiling he put it to the side as he grabbed the next present. It was from the Hyuga's and was a book on advance chakra control. Maybe he could find a new chakra control exercises in it.

The next present was a scroll from the Aburame's opening the scroll he saw it was a small genjutsu utilizing his bugs to make it seem like there were more than there actually was. Next he grabbed the gift from the Uchiha's, which was another scroll with a jutsu, the Katon: Dragon fire technique. It was a small technique which spat fire onto wires to burn a captured enemy.

Jiraiya finally shoved a present in his hands. Naruto just grinned at the man as he slowly took his time to unwrap the present from Jiraiya. It was a book on advance fuinjutsu. Naruto thanks Jiraiya before moving onto the next gift, which was from Kakashi. It was a rather simple book on genjutsu's.

Naruto grabbed the square gift and read the tag it was from the third, opening the packet he saw a happuri in it, a note was attached.

' _Naruto-kun,_

 _I'm sure you will receive a lot of items to help with your training, but I thought that this might be a bit better, as you know my sensei wore a happuri instead of the traditional headband. When I was thinking of what to get you this came to mind. When I see you working so hard to get stronger, just so you can become recognized by Konoha and become the next Hokage, you remind me of him. Tobirama always thought of Konoha as a family, and I know that one day you will be the next ruler of the family._

 _-Jiji.'_

Naruto smiled as he read the letter. He couldn't help but to tear up a bit in happiness. People believed in him. His jiji thought he could become the next Hokage. Naruto carefully took of his head band and put on the happuri, slightly surprised by just how well it felt.

"Looking good!" Hashirama beamed giving him a thumbs up.

Madara nodded in agreement, "You definitely wear it better than Tobirama does."

"Thanks!" Naruto said before he went to grab his next gift which was from Asuma. It was a small card.

' _Hey, I know that usually kids don't learn their chakra affinities till there chunin, but I figured this would be a good gift. This chakra paper will tell you your primary affinity, just push chakra into it. The results should be pretty obvious, but if your confused I'm sure Jiraiya will tell you.'_

Taped onto the card was a small square paper.

He carefully pulled the paper off. "Oh cool a chakra paper, lets see what you got."

Naruto nodded and pushed a bit of chakra into the paper, the paper violently ripped in half before burning.

"Nice you have two primary affinities. Wind and Fire. Someday we'll have to test to see if you have any secondary affinities."

Naruto just gave a small grunt at that. "The Uchiha be strong with this one." Hashirama muttered as he sighed and looked up as if begging for patience.

Madara scowled and cuffed him. Hashirama pouted. Madara scoffed.

Naruto just chuckled at the two's antics. "At least Naru-chan likes me!" The man said throwing his arms around Naruto's neck suddenly sitting next to him.

Madara just shook his head and sighed. Naruto grabbed his next gift, a book from Ibiki. A book on gathering information from people physically.

Hashirama and Jiraiya scowled at the book. Naruto just put it with his other stuff, he wasn't particularly interested in having to torture others to get information, but it was an interesting gift, and it wouldn't hurt to at least know about it.

The final gift on the table was actually from the Anbu, which meant the commander and his old guards, who no longer guarded him since he was a genin. Opening it up he blinked in surprise to see that it was a slightly worn scroll, it was labeled the Uzumaki Whirlpool Taijutsu style.

All in all it was a good birthday this year, though there were quite a few jutsu's and stuff unlike previous years. Though that was probably because he had just became a genin. The clan families would be now fully passing down there techniques to their children after all.

Naruto yawned as he gathered his gifts and put them away in his room. Changing into his clothes he collapsed onto his bed and was asleep before his head even hit his pillow.

 **A/n: I hope you enjoyed Naruto's birthday chapter. *Yawns* I'm pretty tired, yet I've only been awake for a couple hours. Anyways there will be another chapter** **tomorrow** **. I am also working on a slightly more serious ghost story called Calling upon the shadows of the past. And then I have Akuma-sensei where Naruto will eventually be able to see ghosts... I find that I tend to write Naruto seeing ghost fanfictions.**


	33. Chapter 33

The next day he woke up with a sigh, it was the weekend, which Kakashi left them to train themselves or relax as they saw fit. Naruto though had finished studying blood seals and was now ready to take a look at the next part of the Hiraishin seal. Looking at the journal he read what Minato had written.

" _The Next seal I discovered in Tobirama's Hiraishin is a blood seal, I never was a huge fan of the seals, though the gravity seal is quite useful. Anyways this seal is a blood connection seal, which is relatively simple to do as it makes it so only that specific user can use it, I'm actually shocked that such a simple seal is incorporated into it."_ The paragraph ended there but the next paragraph said, " _On second observation with comparisons between Tobirama's blood connector and a ordinary blood connector there are a few subtle differences. Looking at these differences I realize that it actually allows Tobirama to carry and bring along someone else through the technique. And in fact allows for him to connect someone else to the formula. It is ingenious, Tobirama was truly a brilliant man to be able to incorporate all that with his blood seal, unfortunately I have to study the seal further before incorporating Tobirama's directly into mine."_

Below the paragraph it had a drawing of both a normal blood connector seal and tobirama's with scribbles marking the difference and stating what he believed each mark's purpose was. On the page next to it was another seal that his father helpfully labeled as his seal. Naruto noticed it was slightly different from Tobirama's though unfortunately his father didn't write why his seal was different from Tobirama's or what the differences did.

So Naruto began the slow work of deciphering his father's seal. He easily recognized some of the additions which was simply modifying the seal so that Minato would be able to use it more easier and it was actually making it so that the seal was more thoroughly connected to each person, making it more like an extension of the users will than a jutsu. Once Naruto realized that he was able to get to work on redesigning the blood connector seal to serve his purpose. It took him the full weekend to do it, but he was able to design the Advance blood connector seal. He stored the design with his chakra location seal, he was slowly working his way through the Hiraishin.

The next seal was a seal to break the body apart into its molecular structure and then reform it. Naruto stared at the complicated looking seal and decided to continue the project another time. Eating dinner he went to bed.

The next day they met up with Kakashi and he started training them, trying to first help them overcome their weaknesses. For Sasuke he taught him tree climbing. He had also started Sakura on that as he stamina exercise. For Naruto he subjugated him to genjutsus after telling him how to break out of them. Then they breaked for lunch before they went to mission control. "Team seven ready for our first mission." Kakashi announced with an eye smile.

"Oh? Hmm well lets see, we have a small selection of D-ranks for you, would you like to paint a fence, clean a house, babysit, or pick up trash?"

"Well team, what would you like?" Kakashi asked with an eye grin.

"What kind of missions are these?" Sasuke asked with a frown.

"They are the mission that freshly graduated genin like yourself can do, if you complete enough of them then you can then go on a C-rank." Kakashi answered.

"How many D-ranks are enough to go on a C-rank?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm, well usually it's actually closer to a hundred D-ranks before we take you out for a simple C-rank, but the bare minimum of D-ranks needed it ten." Kakashi told them with an eye smile.

"How many D-ranks can a team take in a day?" Sakura asked next.

The two boys listened as they realized Sakura had caught onto something. "I believe that a genin team is only allowed up to three D-rank missions a day."

She nodded, "Alright, then we will take the fence painting mission, the house cleaning mission, and the picking up trash mission."

The Hokage chuckled, "Alright then, here are your mission scrolls."

Kakashi grabbed them with an eye-smile. "Thank you, Team seven will complete the missions and return soon."

They exited the mission room and Kakashi led them to a house with a fence next to one of the gates was a couple paint cans. The three genin quickly got to work painting the fence. A couple hours later and the three genin finished.

Next they went to the next mission location and they found a house that had dust stacked up an inch thick on almost everything, though there was a trail where it looked like someone walked in and went through everything. An old woman stood at the door, "Ehhh there you ninja are that I hired! I've been waiting forever for ya damn slowpokes to arrive." She said her voice high pitched and croaky as if she didn't talk much.

"My grandson wants me to move into the new retirement home since I can't live here anymore. So now I have to sale this place. So chop chop get to cleaning, what are you standing around for?" She asked looking at them as she pointed to the dust and grime.

The three genin sighed silently as they got to work, though Naruto was able to listen to Madara and Hashirama mess about. Madara was making snide comments about everything and Hashirama was scolding him about his comments saying he was being rude. Madara just smirked, "You know you find my remarks amusing, no one can see you besides for Naruto and me, just admit it."

Hashirama went silent as Naruto glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. He saw Madara grin even wider, "Come on Hashirama, I know your not a stickler like your brother…" Madara coaxed.

"Fine." Hashirama stated looking away.

Madara chuckled and went back to making his snide remarks.

"How long are you ninja going to take! I thought you youngsters were supposed to be fast or something." The woman grouched in a shrill voice.

Madara snorted, "Oh would you just shut up already, you old hag, they are going faster than you ever did." A wide grin spread across his face as he added, "Unless it was when you were cu-"

Hashirama choked as he quickly slammed his hand onto Madara's mouth.

Naruto paused then sweatdropped, had Madara been about to make some perverted comment?

"Madara! Don't make jokes like that in front of Naruto! I won't let you corrupt him!" Hashirama said cuffing Madara on the head.

The Uchiha just rolled his eyes. "Hn." He grunted in reply.

"Don't you whatever me!" Hashirama said pouting.

Madara smirked.

Other than the two being up to their normal antics though and Naruto trying to not laugh at it all the cleaning went pretty smoothly and only took them an hour and a half.

Finally it was time to do their last mission in which they had to pick up trash from one of Konoha's parks. It may seem like that should be pretty easy but the civilians never listened to the rule of don't litter and so trash was everywhere. It took them an hour to finish cleaning up the mess.

The three then returned to the mission office to report their success. They were dismissed for the day and then they each went their separate paths tired from the hard work they did.

The next day they got up and had to do the same thing over again, they once more grabbed three missions wanting to get as many done as soon as possible.

The next week passed by with team training in the mornings, and in the afternoon they did three D-rank missions. It didn't take long for the genins to become unhappy with the chores, though they continued to sludge through them. Finally it was friday and the three gening were done, they had done a mission to clean out the carrier bird nesting area, and they had to catch Tora for the third time in as many days. The three members of team seven were tired of the chores! The three trudged into the mission centered scratched up from catching Tora, the demonic cat was hissing and spitting from the crate the three had shoved it into after Sasuke managed to use his sharingan to knock it out. They returned the cat to it's owner and the woman started hugging the cat tightly.

The Hokage smiled at them as he listed of the mission options they had for their third mission for the day. "Let's see, the academy is requesting a team to clean a room, there is a babysitting mission available, the Inuzuka kennels need cleaning-" A yelp and shout of 'Tora!' interrupted him, The hokage chuckled, "And I believe the catch Tora mission is available again."

"Jiji, is there any C-rank mission we can take?" Naruto asked desperate to do something other than the chores they had been given.

Beside him Sakura and Sasuke nodded. "Yeah! We have done the minimum of ten D-ranks!" Sakura added.

Iruka frowned at them, "You three are fresh rookie's, all you can do is D-ranks, the ninja ranking system is in place for a reason. You wouldn't be safe taking a C-rank mission."

"Iruka." The hokage said cutting the man off. He turned to Kakashi, "Well they are your team, what do you think?"

Kakashi looked at his students. "I think they can handle a simple C-rank."

The third nodded and looked through the c-rank missions. "Ah, here we go. This will do nicely, an easy bodyguarding mission," He nodded and then a moment later the door opened.

In came a stumbling intoxicated man, "My name is Tazuna, and… and I'm a super bridge builder! You are to give me super protection, while I build my super bridge." The man declared lifting his bottle up. The man blinked as he looked at them, "Huh? I thought I was getting super ninjas, not super brats."

"We are ninja's Tazuna-san." Sakura said politely.

"I.. I see well please give me super protection while I build my bridge!" Tazuna shouted waving the bottle and taking a sip.

"Of course!" Naruto agreed beaming at the man, his posture resembled how Hashirama normally stood.

"Hn." Sasuke agreed.

"Alright team, we will meet at the bridge at 8 am, we will be on time." The for once went unsaid.

The three genin nodded. After three days of Kakashi being three hours late in a row they just didn't bother showing up until three hours had passed. Kakashi had been proud of them for 'following in his footsteps.'

"Of course sensei."

"Make sure you pack enough supplies for a month."

Naruto paused, "A month?"

"Yeah, that's how long the mission is estimated to be."

Mentally calculating that gave him roughly two weeks before he had to head out for the tournament. He gave a nod, "Alright then. It better not take to much longer than that though, I got a vacation to go on." He muttered.

Team seven split as each went home to pack. Naruto was mostly already packed since he carried a lot of stuff on him via his seals, he just made sure to grab a few extra sets of clothes. Nodding once he was packed he went to bed early after eating some bakudan. Tomorrow he would go on his first real mission!

 **A/n: One of my** **favorite** **scenes is in this chapter. Anyways, you guys should get a few more chapters at least, and then I'm taking another leave on this story... (I got other stories distracting me... ones I don't want to post until they are finished and edited and nice because that story is my precious. Well two of them are my precious.)**


	34. Chapter 34

Naruto made his way to the gate the next morning, looking the same as he normally did. He saw Sasuke and Sakura standing there both with backpacks on. It was only a minute later when Kakashi walked up to them with their client. "Alright! First thing's first, I want to make sure that you guys have packed the essentials. Sasuke, what did you pack?"

"A one month ration scroll, two extra sets of clothing. I also have extra weapons and a few explosive notes. I have a few scrolls to read for if I have free time." Sasuke said.

"Good. You have met the bare essentials. Sakura?"

"Same thing as Sasuke, only I don't have anything to do in free time." She replied.

Kakashi gave a nod, "Naruto?"

"I have my food scroll, which holds plenty of food. I have my explosive clay ready, I have some weapons and a couple extra sets of clothing, and a basic first aid kit. I think that's all the important stuff."

"Alright, well it's time to set off!" Kakashi said with an eye smile as they situated themselves around Tazuna. The four ninja and one civilian began the long walk towards wave country. Naruto sighed after a few hours, he was bored. Sure it was interesting finally going on a mission that wasn't a chore, but realistically he knew that there was a low chance of anything happening. Though that would be considered a good thing in the books of ninja everywhere, a boring mission is a safe mission after all.

The day passed and they set up camp. Madara and Hashirama were whispering to each other about something. They went oddly silent when Naruto raised an eyebrow at them. Idly wondering what the two were planning he shrugged it off as non important and went to sleep. He would have middle watch.

The next day they continued on their journey. "Sensei, does Wave have ninja?" Sakura asked.

"No, they don't." Kakashi answered idly flipping through his book.

Sakura frowned, "Some other countries have different customs and traditions, and they have ninja as well. There are a few minor villages, but there are five major hidden villages in each of the great nations, here in fire country we have Konohagakure, in wind country they have Sunagakure, in lightning they have Kumogakure, in water country they have the Kirigakure, and finally in earth country they have Iwagakure." Kakashi continued looking up from his book.

"In each of these countries only the strongest are allowed to wear the title of 'Shadow' we have the Hokage, then the leader of Suna is the Kazekage, Lightning has the Raikage, Water has the Mizukage, and Earth has the Tsuchikage. These five are the known as the most powerful."

Naruto's mind flashed back to Onoki complaining about his back, and to his Jiji being a pervert. It was surly true that the older the ninja was, the more knowledge and power they had. He looked to see Sakura frown. "The old man is that powerful?" She questioned.

"Don't doubt him," Kakashi rebuked her. "The older the ninja is, the more powerful they are… that's the rule of thumb anyways. There are some exceptions to that of course." Kakashi said.

The group fell silent as they thought over that. "Kaka-sensei, isn't oji-san older than jiji?" He asked wondering which of the two was more powerful.

"Maa, I guess he is, though those two are relatively close in terms of power." He answered.

"Hmm." Naruto hummed thinking about the two old man.

They continued walking. A few hours passed by, "I sense two people further up ahead, ninja's of some sort." Hashirama warned.

Naruto gave a slight nod and fell back to walk next to Kakashi. He quickly signed to Kakashi what Hashirama had told him.

'Play along,' Kakashi signed back to him.

Naruto just nodded and went back to his position. Soon they walked past a puddle and they turned as they heard a noise only to see Kakashi ripped apart. Naruto gave a slow blink, so that's what Kakashi meant. He felt the two enemies get behind him, quickly he jumped away turning as he jumped away he reached into his pouch and pulled out some of his smaller explosions.

Sasuke was frozen for a moment before he moved and with expert precision he tossed out his weapons the wire wrapping around the two attackers before they could notice.

"Good job my cute little genin." Kakashi said with an eye grin as he reappeared unharmed. He went to the two trapped ninja's and dearmed them of their weapons.

"Hmm, now I wonder what a couple chunin ninja like you are doing on this road?" He mused looking at the two captives. "Naruto, you have been learning from Ibiki…" Kakashi said with a small grin as the two chunin looked decidedly more nervous.

"You don't mean Ibiki Morino… Konoha's mind breaker do you?" One of them whimpered.

"Of course, I'm sure that Naruto wouldn't mind an opportunity to utilize what he's learned from Ibiki." Kakashi said with a sadistic eye smile. "Would you Naruto?"

Naruto paused wondering what Kakashi meant before he realized that he still wanted Naruto to play along. So Naruto used the intimidation aura as he looked at the two chunin eyeing them like a piece of meat, "Of course not, Ibiki-sensei has been wanting me to get some more practice in." He said calmly.

The two swallowed, "We'll spill! Just don't let him torture us!" One of them called out. The other nodded frantically. Such was the terror even the mention Ibiki's name could cause, and learning that Naruto was his apprentice. Well the two chunin certainly weren't willing to find out just how much the boy had been taught.

Madara was laughing amused as Naruto just gave a small sigh as the two chunin started rambling on about their plans and stuff. "Hmm well it seems that this mission no longer qualifies as a C-rank mission."

"Please! You have to help us, wave is slowly being constricted and Gato is killing us…" Tazuna started ranting.

"Were going to help wave." Hashirama said and started walking.

Naruto just shrugged and continued walking along the road towards wave. Hashirama was walking ahead of him a determined expression on his face. Madara just sighed, "Stupid soft-hearted fool." He grumbled.

It took a few minutes, but eventually his team caught up on him. "Naruto! What are you doing?" Sakura asked.

"Continuing the mission." He said with a shrug.

"But-"

"It is our duty as a ninja to complete the mission, just because it becomes more difficult than expected are you going to give up, because if that's the case you might as well give up being a ninja right now." He told her. "Our orders were to protect Tazuna, and that is what we will do."

"But we could die! We can't face off against stronger ninja's!" She protested.

Naruto frowned as he turned to her. "Then why are you a ninja?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"To be a ninja means to die doing your duty. If I die on this mission than I did my job as a ninja. If I live than I will continue on to the next mission. It is our duty as ninja to complete missions assigned to us at the risk of our own lives." He told her. If it was one thing he learned being able to see shimmers, it was that many ninja died young, only a rare group made it to 40. That was why ninja's dated at a younger age, and part of the reason there romances never tended to work out.

Sakura looked shocked as she took in what he said, before scoffing, "What would you know, your just the dead last." She stated in denial.

He shrugged. "If you want to go back to Konoha, you can tell jiji that this mission has increased rank. But I'm continuing."

"Hn, the dobe is right, our mission is to protect Tazuna." Sasuke grunted.

Sakura looked at Sasuke before she bit her lip, "O-okay then, we protect Tazuna…"

"What are you guys waiting for?" Kakashi asked with an eye grin from ahead of them.

So the three continued their journey eventually after another day of walking coming to the part where they would have to ride across a small boat in order to get to wave where they would continue on to Tazuna's house. But first they had to get across the misty water.

Finally safely across from the long slow boat ride Naruto absently pulled out one of his explosive marbles and played with it. "Naruto… what grade is that?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto looked more closely at the marble, he noticed now that it was black to his vision, "This, just my Triple L bomb. It's fun. Not as big as a T-4 will be, but I haven't gotten a chance to test the T-4's." Naruto said a happy pyromaniac grin on his face.

His two teammates sent him odd looks. As they reached land the mist became thicker and thicker.

"This mist is not natural." Madara stated his sharingan activated.

Naruto sent a glance towards him. "It is most likely a jutsu." He further explained.

They continued walking on "Everyone Down!" Kakashi shouted tackling Tazuna to the ground even as the genin ducked. They quickly got up and surrounded Tazuna, even as they looked up to where a large sword had hit a tree and a man stood on top of the sword. This man had bandages wrapped around his mouth and down his neck, short spiky brown hair with his headband wrapped sideways. He had black muscle shirt and black pants that ended underneath what looked like striped leg warmers that were connected to his sandals.

"Hand over the bridge builder and I won't kill you all." The man said looking down at them. He started seeming more intimidating and scary, Naruto focus on his will to protect and pushed out his own aura of protection. It wasn't anywhere as good as Hashirama who seemed to exude the aura naturally, but it helped to calm his two teammates.

"Such a cheap trick like that won't help you." Naruto said staring up at the man.

"Heh, I'm surprised one of your brats is able to utilize the manipulating chakra trick." The man commented. "Interesting, but unfortunately for you brat's it's time for you to die." The man in front of them ran towards them in a blur.

Naruto quickly blocked the man's large sword with his gunbai his arms protested as the man bared down on him. The man had attached them head on. The man gave a chilling laugh, "Really you truly do have an interesting brat here, Copy cat Kakashi."

Kakashi gave an eye grin, "He is truly one of a kind, Demon of the Mist, Zabuza. I won't let you hurt any of my brat's. Team, protect Tazuna."

The three genin gave a nod. Zabuza gave a chuckle and the mist thickened around them even more. "Eight spots, The larynx, the spine, the lungs, the liver, the jugular, the subclavian veins, the kidney, and the heart. Heh, which vulnerable spot should I pick for each of you." Naruto felt Kakashi pulse his chakra out, blasting the mist away, letting them see the battlefield.

Zabuza smirked as he once again vanished from the sight of Sasuke and Sakura, though Naruto saw him using a jutsu. Suddenly he reappeared in between all of them. Kakashi arrived a split second later thrusting a Kunai into Zabuza. The three watched as water bled out of Zabuza and another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi. In a manner similar to leapfrog the two kept stabbing and bleeding water until Kakashi held Zabuza at kunai point to his throat.

"It's over." Kakashi stated.

Zabuza smirked and Kakashi glanced behind him just in time to see yet another Zabuza bearing down on him. Kakashi jerked the Kunai and ducked down avoiding getting cut in half from the giant sword Zabuza wielded.

The two continued there fight, it ended when Zabuza managed to capture there sensei in a ball of water. " **While you were distracted with the fight, I was using these bugs as they should be. All you have to do is command them to drain his Chakra.** " Kurama stated in his mind. Naruto smirked and silently thanked the biju as he sent the command to the bikaichu to drain Zabazu's chakra.

"What?" The man muttered.

"You should be feeling the drain," Naruto commented flatly as he slightly mimicked his friend Shino, "Why? Because I'm an honorary aburame." He ended this with an arrogant smirk that was pure Madara.

Zabuza growled at him as the prison wavered and fell. Suddenly a senbon came out of the trees and pierced the man in the neck.

"Thank you for weakening him. I will take care of it from here." A mysterious person in a mask said as they dropped down grabbed Zabuza and fled.

Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered a bit of information from his training with the Anbu, Hunter nin dissected there victim on the spot of their death.

The four continued on their journey to Tazuna's house, Kakashi needing a bit of help as he was exhausted, though he wasn't completely to the point of chakra exhaustion.

 **A/N: Alright so I got like 2 more chapters after this till I'm out, I've hit a bit of a rut. Again. This happens a lot after I hit the start of the series. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy.**


	35. Chapter 35

They arrived at Tazuna's house and after a reunion between Tazuna and his family Kakashi gathered them for a team meeting, "Alright, were going to have to train hard over the next few days." He stated.

"Why Sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Other than the fact that your a weak piece of fangirl trash?" Madara questioned with a snort.

"Hush you!" Hashirama said scoldingly.

Madara just stuck his tongue out at the man, an immature action he and Naruto tended to do a lot. "Well you see, Zabuza is most likely still alive." Kakashi said with a shrug.

"He is?" Sasuke questioned his eyes narrowed.

"Yes, you see hunter ninja are supposed to dissect their targets on the spot, regardless of enemy ninja."

"But… wouldn't the enemy ninja try and kill them?" Sakura asked with a frown.

Kakashi looked at her, "Possibly, but hunter ninjas are some of the most elite ANBU, that and there is a general agreement among villages that if a hunter nin shows up than they are allowed to deal with the body."

"Should we go see if we can find where they went to?" Hashirama asked.

Madara shrugged, "I suppose we could, but where's the fun in that."

Hashirama rolled his eyes, "It would be safer if we could keep Naru-chan and his team updated on the progress of that swordsman recovery."

"Hn, if you want to go find, I will keep an eye on Naruto than." Madara stated crossing his arms.

"Alright, I'll be back in a little bit." Hashirama said with a smile as he waved goodbye and walked out of the wall.

'Hashi-chan has gone to find Zabuza's location and keep tabs on him.' Naruto subtly signed to Kakashi.

'Alright, keep me updated.' Kakashi signed back.

Tazuna's daughter cooked them dinner and the group happily ate the food. They noticed that she took a dish upstairs and when she came back down she no longer had it, seeing the questioning glances she told them that her son, Inari, wasn't feeling well.

After dinner she led them to there rooms, where Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto would share a room, and Sakura would have a room to herself. "Set up a patrol schedule Naruto, and put me for last shift, I'm going to sleep now." Kakashi ordered before collapsing onto the bed. Within seconds he was asleep.

"Sasuke, you will have first shift with Sakura. Set up a perimeter of 1000 feet around the house. 3 hour shifts." Naruto stated.

"And why should I listen to you dobe?" Sasuke asked with a sneer.

"Because Kaka-sensei literally just told me to do it, and so I am." Naruto replied giving the boy a flat look.

"Why do I have to be on a patrol shift with the fangirl?"

"Because no one should patrol alone, I have Kurama to patrol with me, meaning that leaves you to pair up with Sakura, now get going."

Sasuke huffed but left.

The night passed with no incident, and the next morning they woke up to Tsunami having cooked a nice breakfast. During breakfast Hashirama returned and reported that Zabuza would be out of action for a week, and that the hunter nin was indeed his accomplice.

Naruto reported this to Kakashi who gave a small nod. "Alright my cute little genin we will begin training now, let's see… Sakura, your stamina is still weak, so I want you to practice tree walking until your chakra reserves are empty. Rest four ten minutes and than go again."

Sakura nodded and went to start her training. "Sasuke, you need to work on chakra control so you will be doing the water walking exercise. Like the tree walking, only you have to constantly adjust the flow of chakra to prevent from sinking in." Sasuke nodded and went off.

"Naruto, you were using your gunbai to defend, but how much experience to do have actually using it?"

"I have never spared with it before."

"Alright me and you are going to spar then. I will use my tanto."

The two fought Naruto getting used to actually using the gunbai to block against blows. Madara gave him tips on how to better block, and Hashirama told him things to tell Kakashi about the way he was wielding his sword.

Apparently Hashirama used a ton of different swords. Kakashi and Naruto spared each other at chunin speed.

Around the lunch the two took a break and went to go see how the other two members of team seven were doing and pause for lunch. Sakura was on the ground exhausted and it took her a few minutes to even get up to walk with them. They found Sasuke soaking wet and glaring at the water with his Sharingan blazing.

"Looks like you haven't made any progress teme." Naruto taunted.

"Oh yeah like you can do this!" The boy retorted angrily.

Naruto walked out onto the water with a smirk as he crossed his arms, "You were saying?"

"Why must you take after Dara-chan so much?" Hashirama complained once again.

A large fireball went towards Hashirama who ducked. "Do not call me Dara-chan!" Madara shouted.

"Nyah! Dara-chan Dara-chan Dara-chan!" Hashirama shouted sticking his tongue out.

"HASHIRAMA!" Madara bellowed.

The first hokage laughed and the two started sparing, Hashirama continuously calling Madara Dara-chan.

"Naruto!" Kakashi called out.

He blinked and looked over to where the team was staring at him. "Sorry! I was remembering something."

"Anything important?" Kakashi asked.

"Nah, just amusing." He replied grinning.

The four of them ate lunch and then went back to training, the only difference was that Kakashi wanted Sakura to run laps around the house until she collapsed. They went back to sparing and improving.

That night they ate dinner and met Tsunami's son, who told them they were all going to die. "Really? We are? I didn't know you were a prophet. Tsunami-san! Why didn't you tell us your son was a prophet?" Naruto asked giving a grin similar to Hashirama.

Inari promptly ran off. "Was it something I said?" Naruto asked.

"Baka!" Sakura shouted and tried to punch him.

He easily dodged, "Man your violent Sakura."

" **Maybe the pink haired thing should study medical jutsu, like that female team mate that super pervert likes to talk about.** " Kurama stated as he formed himself.

Tsunami gave a startled yelp and Tazuna stared in shock.

"That's not a bad idea…" Kakashi muttered a thinking expression on his face.

" **My ideas are always wonderful.** " The fox retorted, " **I'm going hunting, I'll be back in an hour or so.** " He said as he walked out of the house, using the doggy door to escape.

"Don't kill anyone." Naruto said flippantly.

" **No guarantees.** " Was the faint reply they heard.

Kakashi frowned, "Is it a good idea to let him wonder around like that?"

Naruto shrugged, "Kurama will be fine."

The white haired teacher gave him a flat look, "That wasn't what I was talking about and you know it."

"Kurama wanders around Konoha all the time, besides for a few heart attacks and some mild seizures, I don't think he's caused any real harm."

"You let him wander around Konoha?"

"Yeah, he mostly keeps to the shadows." Naruto replied with a shrug.

Kakashi twitched.

"What's the big deal about letting him wonder around? What is he anyways, you never really gave an explanation." Sakura asked

"I'm not telling you two." Naruto replied, he didn't trust them.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked looking at the teacher.

"Sorry, I can't tell you." He said with an eye smile.

"Why won't you tell us?" Sasuke asked with a scowl at Kakashi.

"Hm, did you say something?" Kakashi asked looking up from his book.

Sasuke turned to glare at Naruto. With his sharingan in his eyes, some people might call it intimidating. "Tell me what that thing is." The boy demanded

To Naruto though who had seen Madara glaring at people… it was nothing. He wasn't going to say anything, but than Sasuke had called Kurama a thing, and that pissed him off. So Naruto snorted, "Listen _Uchiha_ not everything revolves around you, and I am really sick of your attitude, you must have taken after your brother or something, because I know your father is a nicer man than you are." Naruto said scathingly. He was tired of Sasuke acting like he was the best just because he graduated at the top of his class. Just because he was a Uchiha.

He knew that Sasuke often tried to spy on team training grounds in order to copy and steal their work. "Don't you dare compare me to that man!" Sasuke yelled.

"Or what?" Naruto questioned.

"Or I'll beat some sense into you," Sasuke growled.

"You can try…" Naruto retorted.

"No fighting inside." Kakashi said as Sasuke tried to leap across the table.

OoOoO- Sakura -OoOoO

Sakura glanced between the two, as Naruto calmly got up and walked outside and as Sasuke angrily stormed after him. She got up to follow them, but Kakashi shook his head at her. "Don't, with how angry Sasuke is, he will probably use the fire jutsu's he knows, you could get hurt if you follow them." He told her.

"But sensei… won't Naruto get hurt? He's the dead last..."

Kakashi looked at her and put his book down. "You shouldn't think that the rankings in the academy mean anything. Naruto was the dead last because the academy was boring and he never bothered with the assignments. Out of the three of you Naruto is the strongest, and even if he learned nothing new he could be stronger than me, all he lacks is experience."

Sakura frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Well, Naruto has been training in various things since he was young, he knows a lot of different information and various jutsu's and taijutsu stances. He could have been a genin years ago if he decided to take an early graduation, if he had he may even already be a jounin himself. But he decided to keep training, which while good has limited the experience he can gather. See, being a shinobi isn't just knowing a bunch of jutsu's, it's knowing how to use what you know in a fight. That's why as a genin your limited to D-Ranks and C-ranks. D-Ranks won't ever have fighting with another person, instead you have to learn how to deal with taking orders from a civilian. And as you found out they can be really annoying."

Sakura gave a nod to this.

"C-ranks are meant to get you experience in a safer manor, generally the only threat your supposed to face is bandits, of course like with our mission it is possible for things to go wrong. Once you are chunin than you have the responsibility of looking after your team members, and leading them. You will have to make decisions that could cost you your fellow shinobi lives if something goes wrong, or if you make the wrong decision. When your a chunin you tend to take more C-rank missions, and if you're lucky you will be paired with a jounin or two to go on a B-rank mission. Once your a Jounin you will take B-ranks and A-rank missions. By this point you have the experience and you know how to lead and what to do if situations go wrong. Most ninja will only become chunin, at that point the weight of their decisions may break them and they will quit being a ninja."

"Is being a ninja really so dangerous?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. As Naruto said, it is our duty to complete missions, and if we die doing our mission, than we did our job. Ninja's aren't expected to live long lives. Most ninja never make it past twenty-five."

Sakura though over what she heard, was she strong enough to become a ninja? She knew she was the physically weakest amongst there team, and she had never really put much effort into the academy, only learning what was needed to pass. Her parents had warned her, but she didn't believe them.

She was starting to realise that even with the academy changes, they were still sheltered from the truth of the shinobi world. Sakura didn't think she would ever be strong like Sasuke-kun or even Naruto. The boy seemed to know what being a ninja truly was, and he was ready to face it. She had never given much thought about the look in his eyes, but while he was often smiling or happy, sometimes she could see a hard look in them. Naruto was determined to succeed Sakura realized.

 **A/n: Here is another chapter. Hope you enjoy.**


	36. Chapter 36

OoOoO- Naruto -OoOoO

He and Sasuke finally arrived at an area far enough away from the house. Without saying anything Sasuke's sharingan activated and he started to form hand seals.

Naruto recognized them for the great fireball. Forming a single hand seal he put up a water wall before Sasuke even finished his last seal. Steam filled the area. That took care of Sasuke's vision range. He created an Iwa Bunshin and then hid himself in a tree. The steam finally dissipated and Naruto saw that Sasuke was finishing up a hand seal sequence.

His clone dodged the spread of small fireballs. "Is that all you got teme?" His clone taunted.

Sasuke charged at his clone beginning a taijutsu match. Naruto watched in amusement as even against his clone Sasuke seemed to be struggling. Of course his clone was moving at chunin speeds. And Despite the fact the Sharingan was able to see him, he was unable to react fast enough.

"Aww look at you, trying to act all angry. You look so pitiful." his clone sneered.

"Being a bit harsh aren't you Naru-chan?" Hashirama asked from next to him.

"Maybe, but he needs to learn that just because he has the sharingan it doesn't mean that he is invincible. Besides I'm tired of him looking down on me just cause I never bothered in the academy." Naruto responded.

"I think he deserves it," Madara told them.

"Why?"

"He is constantly belliting everyone else and is further bringing shame to the clan."

"Hashi-chan, what do you think Sasuke will do if Orochimaru does find a way into the chunin exams? You know that the snake-sannin plans on offering him power," Naruto whispered.

Hashirama paused, "I'm not sure, I want to say that he wouldn't accept…" He trailed off a sad look on his face.

"You don't think he will say no for sure." Madara stated.

Hashirama shook his head.

The three watched as his clone took Sasuke down with taijutsu. Sasuke stood back up glaring. Naruto sighed and jumped down from the tree dismissing the clone. Sasuke stared in shock. "I was the dead last because the academy bore me. I won't have you thinking I'm weak, I won't stand for you insulting my dreams. And I definitely won't stand for you trying to demand answers out of me. Also, never refer to Kurama as a thing again. He is my friend, and I won't stand for you talking about him like that." Naruto growled out. "If I see you using anything I do, without asking for my permission, because you stole them with your eyes… I will seal away your sharingan."

He left Sasuke standing there staring at him.

The rest of the week passed with Hashirama checking on Zabuza, and them training. Finally as the end of the week drew to a close Hashirama reported that Zabuza would be attacking the bridge in the morning.

Naruto informed Kakashi and the man cut there training off early. "Why are you stopping our training?" Sasuke asked.

"I believe Zabuza will be attacking the bridge, we will need to be fully rested for tomorrow. Sakura I want you to stay here with Tazuna and his family. Naruto you will create a couple clones and have them henge into the bridge builder and Sakura tomorrow morning."

"Alright." Naruto agreed with a nod.

They ate dinner and then they fell asleep. Waking up the next morning they went about their plan. They left heading towards the bridge. They arrived to see a few workers who had arrived early were dead. Standing there waiting for them was Zabuza and his accomplice.

"Kakashi of the sharingan… or do you prefer friend killer Kakashi?" Zabuza asked.

"I prefer Sharingan Kakashi," There sensei said lightly, but Naruto could see that he had tensed up a bit.

Zabuza just looked at them, "I did a bit of research on your team, besides for you your team consists of the last Uchiha… which I suppose the brat should have a bit of strength."

Naruto noticed that Sasuke both seemed proud and angry at that.

"But then you also have Solid Hand Naruto. Slayer of the Wicked eyes. You aren't in the bingo book, but you are in the red alert." The man commented looking at him.

Sasuke seemed confused as he heard this.

"Yeah, I will be in the bingo book soon enough I'm sure." NAruto stated with a deadpan

Zabuza chuckled, "With the legacy of being the son of not only the red hot habanero, but also the yellow flash, I suspect that if you live past today you might indeed make it to the bingo books."

"Red hot habanero? Yellow flash?" Sasuke muttered to himself quietly.

"Haku, take care of the brats, I'll take Kakashi myself."

The false hunter nin attacked them and they defended themselves. Haku managed to trap them in a dome of ice mirrors. Naruto looked around, "Interesting, you have the Yuki bloodline." He commented.

"Yes, I do."

He saw Sasuke use a fire jutsu.

"A weak fire like that won't do anything." The false hunter commented.

Naruto frowned a bit, they were on the bridge so his explosions were out, plus it was to close quarters. Absentmindedly he started dodging the needles Haku threw at them. Sasuke also started dodging them, his sharingan flickering side to side.

"Is this all you can do?" Naruto asked as he dodged more needles.

"This is all I need to do, I do not want to kill you."

Naruto deactivated his weights. With a flash of speed he punched Haku as the boy jumped across to another mirror.

The mask cracked and fell off.

Naruto frowned at the young boy staring at him with wide eyes. "Please kill me." The boy said looking at the ground.

"What? Why?" Naruto asked thrown of course from where he had been about to tie the boy up.

"I am no longer useful to my master."

"What just cause you lost?" Naruto asked as Sasuke came to stand next to him.

"Yes."

Naruto was about to say something when Hashirama looked up, "There is a lot of people at the end of the bridge."

Making a hand seal he used air bullets to clear away the mist. They saw Kakashi standing there with a chidori in his hand, and Zabuza trapped by a bunch of dogs. Beyond them though stood a large group of mercenaries and at the front was a short squat man in a business suit.

"Gato! What is the meaning of this?" Zabuza questioned looking at the man.

The business man than revealed his plan to kill them all and betray Zabuza since he was so expensive.

"Well than Sharingan Kakashi, looks like we are no longer enemies." Zabuza said and Kakashi released him. "Haku, stop laying around and prepare yourself!"

"Yes Zabuza-sama." The boy said.

"Naruto, use a T-1." Kakashi commanded.

Without question he pulled out the marble and threw it, He noticed that they were about 300 feet away from the mercenaries. "Katsu." Naruto said a pyromaniac grin stretching across his face.

A second later and BOOM! The bridge shuddered a bit as the end of it was destroyed, taking with it the majority of the mercenaries being completely vaporize and others with major burns. Kurama formed himself and said, " **Bravo! Bravo! More! Please!** "

Everyone stared at the fox and Kakashi facepalmed.

" **What?** " Kurama questioned looking confused.

"It's nothing, they just aren't used to you being like a kid with a sugar high when it comes to anything destructive. Anyways there won't be any more explosions."

The fox just nodded and dismissed himself. Kakashi and the two boys looked at the badly wounded Zabuza and Haku. "Nice meeting you, but we will be taking our leave now. Our business is done." Zabuza stated.

Kakashi just nodded. "Zabuza… the civil war in Kiri ended about recently, the rebellion won." He stated.

Zabuza looked at them, "Really?"

"Yes, Mei Terumi I believe is trying to get enough support to be Godaime Mizukage."

Zabuza paused, "How recently are you talking about?"

Kakashi gave an eye smile, "A month or two ago."

"Damn, I had heard Konoha's spy network had upped its game, but that's impressive." He muttered. "Anyways, enough chit-chat, we're out of here." Zabuza said and with a swirl of water the two of them disappeared in a shunshin.

"Are we really just letting them go?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course, we are not at war with Kiri, and the Godaime Mizukage has been putting out a couple of ninja's to look for the Seven Swordsman who might be willing to rejoin Kiri, or if they are unwilling to rejoin, than they will be hunted down for their swords. This of course all very hush hush as the Mizukage isn't trying to bring attention to Kiri right now." Kakashi answered. "Now, let's get back to Sakura and the others and fix this bridge up."

They went back to the house and found it to be a mess, items were broken and there was blood on the ground. On the ground was two unfamiliar corpses. They heard the sound of sobbing and cautiously went towards the sound.

They saw Sakura crying and being held by Tsunami and Inari was hugging Tazuna who was watching them as if he wasn't sure what he should do. "What happened?"

"We were attacked by those two thugs, they were planning on kidnapping me, but then they saw that Father was here and they tried to kill him. Sakura here managed to stop them." Tsunami answered quietly.

"Good job Sakura," Kakashi said going over to her. "I know it's tough…"

The girl just sobbed.

The day passed quietly with Kakashi letting Sakura cry until she passed out. He placed her into the room in order to sleep away what she had done.

The next day they got to work on rebuilding the bit of bridge that blew up. Two weeks passed with them guarding Tazuna while he finished the bridge. Finally it was done and they left, behind them the bridge was named The Great Team Seven bridge.

As they went back to Konoha Naruto was starting to become more anxious as it got closer and closer to December 5th. Even though the tournament didn't start till the 12th he liked having plenty of time to get there.

They came back to Konoha on December 6th around later evening "Let's go report to the Hokage."

"Eh, can't we wait till tomorrow? I'm tired."

Kakashi shook his head at her, "We're going now Sakura."

They made their way over to the office and gave there report.

Tobirama and the Hokage were both giving displeased looks.

"We'll… just be going now." Hashirama said with a sweatdrop as he started backing away.

"And where do you think you're going Hashirama?" Tobirama asked.

"Um… away?" Hashirama answered with a squeak, a guilty expression on his face.

Tobirama then started to give Hashirama a tongue lashing. When Madara tried to sneak out Tobirama turned to him. "And you Madara! I expected something like this from Hashirama, but you went along with it!"

Naruto was ignoring the tongue lashing his Jiji was giving Kakashi, which was somehow even worse than the one Tobirama was giving.

Naruto tried to blend into the floor and he noticed that Sasuke and Sakura were staring at their embarrassed sensei with wide eyed looks. "And you Naruto!" Tobirama said turning to him.

He gulped and looked up at the expression on Tobirama's face. "How could you be so irresponsible? You know that as soon as the client lies about the perimeters of the mission you are no longer required to continue the mission,yet you continued on endangering your teammates. What would have happened had you dealt with an enemy that actually wanted to kill you and your teammates?"

Naruto looked down at the ground. He knew that they had gotten lucky that Zabuza didn't actually care to kill them, and instead was only trying to kill Tazuna. Tobirama continued ranting at the three of them.

Hashirama was by this point on the floor with depression clouds over him. Madara wasn't looking Tobirama in the eyes. And Naruto was trying to disappear by standing still. He noticed that his teammates were sending him odd looks. And he could guess why, both he and Kakashi had the same 'being chastised' expression on there faces.

"Yes brother." Hashirama answered as Tobirama asked him if he understood.

"Do you understand me Madara?" Tobirama questioned with narrowed eyes.

"Yes." Madara answered as he crossed his arms.

"Yes Hokage-sama." Kakashi said despondently.

Tobirama turned to him.

"Now, I know that your going on your vacation Naruto." The third said.

Naruto turned to him grateful to have an excuse to ignore Tobirama.

"I am tempted to prevent you from leaving on your vacation, but I suspect that if I did that you would find some way to go anyways. So instead… as punishment the rest of your team is assigned to go with you." Jiji told him with a vindictive look.

"But-!" Naruto immediately tried to protest. He didn't want Sasuke or Sakura to come with him.

"It's either take the rest of your team with you, or don't go on your vacation at all." The Hokage told him.

"Fine. I guess they are to be my guards then?" Naruto questioned. He ignored Tobirama as the ghost put a hand on his shoulder and was giving Hashirama a disapproving face.

"Yes," The Hokage answered and dismissed them.

"Come on, time to get going."

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Sakura asked confused.

"I am currently your client, you will be guarding me as we get to Iwa by the eleventh." Naruto told them and headed out leaving the rest of them to catch up to him. As soon as they got to the gate Naruto took off at high speeds.

 **A/n: Alright obviously the normal Iwa chapters are coming up, but once we finish this one we will be done for awhile. This chapter was hard for me to write, and for multiple reasons. Anyways this will be the last chapter for awhile, until I can get a few more chapters written. I don't really do Tobirama's scolding justice... so if you want to imagine it better feel free, in fact if you want to send scolding suggestions I wouldn't mind :) Anyways I also will be adding in a new mission or two for team seven to go on before chunin exams, and maybe after as well. If you have any mission suggests I would love to hear them. Anyways Thank you all for reading, and I will try and update this soon, I just got a bit of writers block... even though I know where I want to take this the words won't come. I blame the new story idea that popped into my head... It dosen't have a real name but it's so far called,** ** _In which Sasuke has_** _ **Identity**_ _ **issues and Hashirama is the cause of them.**_ **Again thank you for reading and i'll see you all later.**


	37. Chapter 37

"Your teammates are going to be left behind at this rate." Madara commented.

"If we go at their slow speed we won't make it in time. They can consider this training." Naruto replied with a small smirk. He was already far enough ahead that they wouldn't hear him.

Madara just snorted in amusement.

Hashirama sighed, "At least we won't have to deal with Tobirama's disapproving looks for a little while."

Naruto shuddered as a cold feeling passed through him and Tobirama appeared.

"EEP!" Hashirama shouted.

Madara twitched.

"What are you doing here Tobirama-sensei?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"I decided that to make sure you three don't do anything foolish I will be coming along with you."

"How did you even get here?"

Tobirama looked smug and pointed to where he had put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. There on his shoulder was a Hiraishin tag. "You can Hiraishin as a spirit?" Naruto asked.

"So it seems," Tobirama glanced behind them where off in the distance the rest of Team Seven was lagging behind, "Any reason you are moving faster than your team?"

"Training them to move faster. Plus I need to get to the tournament on time."

Tobirama just sighed.

A few hours later and he noticed Kakashi caught up with him, carrying an exhausted looking Sasuke and Sakura with him. "Took you long enough Kaka-sensei." Naruto teased with a grin.

"These two denied my offer saying that they would catch up to you."

Naruto snorted.

"What's that mark on your shoulder?" Sakura asked.

He blinked, "What mark?" There was no way she was able to see the Hiraishin mark, was there?

Kakashi looked at his shoulder and his eyes widened slightly. Sakura pointed to the hiraishin mark.

Naruto faked looking surprise, "You can see that? Heh… I thought I did that in invisible ink… must have grabbed the wrong bottle somehow." He said looking at Kakashi who seemed to realize what he was trying to convey.

"So what is that seal?" Sakura asked after a few minutes had passed and Naruto hadn't said anything.

"None of your business," Naruto replied.

Sakura gave a huff, "You never answer our questions."

Naruto frowned, trying to ignore her, but he knew that Sakura was smart enough to recognize the seal, since Tobirama's Hiraishin was in the history books, along with Minato's. She did have what seemed to be a photographic memory. He saw her trying to get a better look at it, a puzzled look on her face as if trying to remember something. "I have to go to the restroom, I'll be back in a minute."

With that he detoured into the forest, and as soon as he was out of eyesight of his teammates he pulled out his sealing supplies and drew a storage seal on it, praying that the two seals didn't react negatively to each other. Seals weren't meant to be put on top of each other like he was doing, but this the only way he could think to disguise it on quick notice. Finishing the seal he did in fact go to the bathroom before heading back to his teammates.

Though as he started to walk back he frowned, Sakura will probably notice the difference, but it should through her off. Sasuke hasn't said anything much yet, which was a bit worrying, the prick seemed to become different after the fight the two of them had.

Thinking back to the mission that had gotten him into this mess in the first place he wondered how Sakura had handled her first kill. It had to be tough, even Naruto hadn't made his first kill yet, though he knew that at some point he would have to as a ninja.

He made it back to his team and they continued on towards Iwa, though as he occasionally glanced towards the people he considered his family he noticed that Tobirama seemed to be smirking at Madara and Hashirama every chance he got.

After an hour of watching this Naruto asked, 'What are you so smug about?'

"My hiraishin still works, at least for you, I have of course tried normal surfaces and people, but it seems it only works on us spirits, and you."

Naruto pursed his lips together, this ability was getting stronger, and he wasn't entirely sure why. If it really had been because he had received Madara's eyes then how was that affecting his other senses and how he was able to interact with spirits. Even the filth had an affect on him, more than they would affect a normal person.

Normal people weren't able to feel them at all, and the filth were only a real harm to the spirits, unless of course one gets strong enough to possess a human, which Naruto heard happened on occasion if it managed to stay alive long enough.

He ignored Sakura as she continued trying to ask questions, he put on Uchiha expression #4 'I'm not going to answer your questions so just shut up.'

She finally stopped pestering him after a few hours. "Finally the fangirl shut up," Madara smirked as he added, "Ibiki could probably use her as a new means of torture."

Naruto nearly snickered in response. Hashirama sighed, and Tobirama glared, "You really shouldn't talk about Naruto's teammates like that."

Madara scowled, "Why should I not say what I think, besides you know it is true, you are just to much of a stickler to say it your self."

"I am not a stickler, I just know better than to make comments that are rude and derogatory, especially when you are standing right next to the person you are talking about."

Madara crossed his arms as he responded, "The fangirl can not even hear me. If I want to speak about how she is just a piece of trash I will."

Tobirama stared at Madara his eyes narrowed into slits and Naruto and Hashirama both started trying to edge away, which was a lot harder to do when you were running towards a destination. It was easy to tell what was coming, and the duo didn't want to be caught up in the argument.

"Just because she can not hear you, does not mean you have the right to speak down about her like that! She is a one of Konoha's Ninja, she should be given the same respect that all ninja's deserve."

Madara smirked, "Ah, but I am giving her the same respect I give all other ninjas except a select few, which is of course absolutely none."

"You should give our ninja's more respect. It's because of this attitude of yours that no one liked you and everyone thought you were a warmonger."

Naruto glanced back and nearly froze as Madara's face turned to stone, with that he decided now was not the time to be subtle and broke into an outright run.

"How dare you!" Madara seethed.

The young ninja knew exactly what Madara was doing as he felt a strange warm wind ruffle his hair, though he knew his hair wasn't actually moving, but he could feel the breeze blowing through his hair. Madara had started casting jutsu's. "Why did you start moving at a faster speed?" Kakashi asked beside him as Sasuke and Sakura held on.

Naruto gave him a look. Kakashi sweatdropped, he knew that look well enough. "Oh right, we're behind schedule," Kakashi said with an eye smile.

"That and the fact were fleeing for our lives before Tobirama and Madara can drag us into it," Hashirama said with a large sweatdrop as the duo continued to hear the sounds of fighting.

'At least with you guys being spirits the landscape won't get destroyed, else Konoha would have been destroyed a hundred times over.' Naruto signed to both Hashirama and Kakashi.

Kakashi gave Naruto an amused look. Hashirama gave a nod in agreement. After a couple hours of going at a high speed the group slowed down to a more reasonable pace, which meant something that Sakura and Sasuke could keep up with.

As night fell the team quickly set up camp and fell asleep after setting up the watch schedule. The next day things were tense, as Tobirama and Madara kept glaring at each other. Well it was tense for Naruto and Hashirama, Sakura and Sasuke just continued on oblivious. Kakashi at least seemed to realize that something was going on.

"Why are we going to Iwa anyways?" Sakura asked, frowning as she said Iwa.

"I'm going on vacation, weren't you listening?"

"Why would you want to go to Iwa though?" Sasuke finally spoke up. He was scowling as he asked the question.

"Because I participate in a tournament that takes place there, and I have to go each year in order to keep my spot on the leaderboard," Naruto answered, knowing they would have learned about that information anyways. They didn't need to learn what the tournament was about or anything else. Naruto scowled, he really didn't like the fact that jiji had forced him to bring his teammates, he didn't trust them at all, especially Sasuke. Which was another thing, the third knew that trusting Sasuke with any sort of valuable information was risky, and while Naruto going to Iwa wasn't exactly a secret that could destroy Konoha, it was something that could create difficulties, especially if Sasuke angered the wrong person. And knowing the teme as he did Naruto just knew that something was bound to happen.

"What place would _you_ have on the leaderboard, and what is the tournament?" Sakura asked.

"That is for me to know and for you to try and find out."

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked turning to him.

Who was currently reading Icha Icha and not paying attention to them. Well he could also be pretending to ignore them, that was an option as well. Naruto rolled his eyes as he noticed Madara standing behind Kakashi, and that Hashirama and Tobirama was sending disapproving looks. Decided that reading would be a good idea, and so opening one of his seals he pulled out the book about blood seals.

" _Looking into the next seal structure for the hiraishin, which is the start of how the hiraishin can actually move people, this seal breaks down people into their base molecules. This is paired with a few other seals of course, but for now I will only work on this one and the one to reassemble a person, or animal, or any object this seal is applied to. It wouldn't be smart to test this on myself or another person and find out that I messed up. The first thing I did was check to see if using the seal alone worked, of course it didn't, and seeing as this is a completely original seal with nothing coming close to being similar that I have found, I will have to figure out how to work it from scratch. I know that the chakra location seal connects to act as a beacon for the molecules once they have traveled. I also found a chakra lock, I suppose as yet another security feature. As I study the seal I can see now that the Nidaime was quite paranoid, adding multiple security measures and dead seals."_ Naruto noticed that several pages seemed to be ripped out before the next page.

" _I have taken time to deconstruct and reconstruct the seal multiple times before I have managed to make it work. It has taken me a month of work, and for safety reasons I have destroyed my thoughts and theories, as if anyone was to discover how to make this seal who is an enemy to Konoha… the results would not be good. Even with only this part of the hiraishin seal they could use it for different purposes. No, now I can see why Tobirama was so paranoid, in fact I will have to make sure when I am finish to add several decoys and perhaps even make it so the individual seals are layered underneath a disguise seal so that those looking at my seal will have another step to go through. I have no doubt that if the seal had existed when Tobirama had been alive he would have used it. Once I am done with this I should make sure it is secured, or destroyed."_

That was it, as Minato had written, there was no theories, no thoughts on how it can work. At least Naruto could have a side by side view of Tobirama's and Minato's. As Naruto looked at them, he realized that this was going to take a lot of time. The seal was complicated, and it had layers and sublayers and what seemed to be seals that were stacked together.

Unfortunately other than think about theories there wasn't much he could do to work on it at the moment, but at least now he can start on deciphering what was needed and see about rebuilding his own. As the second day of the trip drew to a close, Hashirama sighed in boredom as he had nothing to do. Tobirama was watching the group and smirking as he watched Naruto working on how to figure out his seal. Madara and Kakashi were both reading Icha Icha. Sasuke was glaring at everything, and Sakura was trying to make conversation with no success.

It was with this that the group made ready to camp for the second day of their journey.

* * *

 **A/n: Hello everyone and welcome to chapter 37, I am sorry for the delay, I had major writers block in this chapter. But once I got past it with the help of my friends I managed to finish the chapter. You may notice strange updates in which chapters dissapear or are renumbered. (Like this would have been chapter 38) But I am doing a bit of editing and rewriting for this. I'm hoping to fill in plot holes, or things I want to add in to these future chapters, but have no actual mention in the story. (Like I have a pretty major scene I want to add in, that I will reference). Anyways if you notice a plothole, or things I had in but forgot, please let me know. The edited version will hopefully smooth everything and so while this will still be crack, the crack bits won't be as noticeable, or may even flow in more smoothly. But again this is just my hope, I don't know how much of it I will get around to doing. But at least one chapter is done.**


	38. Chapter 38

**oOoOo- Sakura's Pov -oOoOo**

It was their second day of traveling to Iwa and Sakura was thinking about the recent events. First back in wave, she had made her first kill. Kakashi hadn't been comforting, offering false promises or lying about it getting easier to deal with. He instead told her that this was what they did as a ninja. He told her that he remembered his first kill and sometimes he still dreamt about it. He told her that as a ninja she would be expected to kill.

He told her to think about what that meant and if she really wanted to continue being a ninja. So for the rest of the time they were there in wave she was thinking, but she couldn't make up her mind. She wanted to be able to protect her comrades, to be worthwhile.

But the idea of killing people was horrible, she didn't want to kill anyone else, she wanted to protect people, to heal them. Not hurt them.

Which reminded her of what that weird fox that occasionally popped up said that she should learn medical jutsu's. So she decided that when they got back into Konoha she would see about signing up to be a medic.

Only when they got back Naruto seemed to be getting more and more fidgety, and Kakashi decided they were going to report immediately. She had protested, but he seemed adamant about them reporting soon, and she noticed him glancing at Naruto.

So they went to the Hokage's office and started to give the report.

As Kakashi progressed the Hokage was sending displeased looks. It was shocking to see their near unflappable sensei suddenly seem embarrassed and ashamed. She glanced at Naruto as she caught him flinching, and his expression shifted to one that matched Kakashi's as he seemingly tried to blend into the floor. It was confusing though, why would he be doing something like that? Hokage-sama wasn't scolding him. He looked as if he was being chastised, but she couldn't see anyone chastising him.

Finally though the Hokage seemed to be done scolding their sensei and turned to Naruto. She watched as Naruto shifted his attention to him and seemed to relax a little bit, at least until the Hokage told him his rules for allowing the boy to go on the vacation.

This seemed to upset Naruto as he made it clear he didn't want them with him. And then they were immediately heading out again. Straight onto another mission, only this time Naruto was their client. He let them make a brief stop at their home to gather supplies, and then they met up at the gate and he took of at high speeds, leaving them behind.

She and Sasuke ignored Kakashi's offer to carry them to catch up. She didn't know Sasuke's thoughts, but for her she felt as if he was leaving them behind. He had always been the weird dead-last, but now Kakashi was telling her that he was the strongest of them.

It didn't make sense to her, how he was so strong, the only people she had seen him hang around was that weird bug boy, and the shy hyuuga girl. Eventually though she stumbled and fell in exhaustion as she pushed herself to catch up with the boy who was only getting further and further away.

Kakashi picked her up and carried her, keeping pace with Sasuke until he collapsed as well. With Kakashi carrying both of them he picked up his speed and soon caught up with Naruto. The two started bantaring, but a mark on Naruto's shoulder caught her attention, she hadn't noticed it before but it seemed familiar. So she questioned him about it. Then he made some excuse of it being invisible ink, but she suspected he was lying or hiding the truth as he glanced at Kakashi.

He was hiding something, and Kakashi-sensei knew what it was. She tried to press him for the answer but he brushed her off. So instead she decided to try and get a closer look, she felt as if she should know what the seal was. He noticed her looking at it and made an excuse to go to the restroom. When he came back the seal was different.

He said nothing, and she stopped trying to bug him about it. They continued on at a fast speed, Kakashi carrying the two of them without complaint. But she kept watching Naruto. Another hour or so passed and he seemed to be thinking about something as his lips went into a thin line. Occasionally she asked him about something she had noticed him doing, but he never answered her. Eventually his face hardened, and she could swear that he looked like a Uchiha in that moment.

The face was one she saw on Sasuke whenever she asked him questions that he never answered. So she finally stopped trying to ask questions. It became clear that he didn't want to talk to them. That he didn't trust them. Yet she continued watching and noticed his eyes glance to the side and he suddenly seemed amused.

A minute later and he seemed to sweatdrop, even though he was still amused. Suddenly he started picking up his speed slightly, and almost seemed to be nervous as he glanced to the side. Another few seconds and he almost seemed wary as he glanced back, she caught a brief expression of panic on his face before he started running even faster, almost looking as if he was running for his life.

Kakashi questioned him about why he started moving faster and Sakura watched him give a stare, as if conveying some hidden meaning. Kakashi chuckled and gave an eye grin as he responded, "Oh right, we're behind schedule."

If Sakura hadn't been paying so much attention to Naruto she would have missed his hands becoming a blur. Blinking she turned to Kakashi who suddenly seemed amused. Was Naruto and Kakashi communicating silently? Why not just say it out loud?

Finally after a couple hours Naruto and Kakashi slowed down to a pace that she and Sasuke could keep up with. Night fell and they had gone to sleep, and the next day she asked why they were going to Iwa. She didn't expect an answer if she was honest. Plus, why Iwa, the two villages hated each other with a passion. Sasuke finally asked and Naruto sighed and answered.

Which made her curious about what sort of tournament that he would have a spot on the leaderboard. Despite what Kakashi said he wasn't that good of a ninja since he lacked actual experience, at least according to Kakashi.

But once again he refused to answer, Kakashi was also ignoring them reading that perverted book of his. Naruto seemed to roll his eyes as he saw Kakashi reading and he pulled out a book from one of his many seals and ignored all of her attempts to start a conversation, it was as if he didn't hear her.

Finally the day came to an end, and Sakura hoped the next day would be better. So begun the next day with the group continuing on… by Kakashi picking them up and moving at high speeds since they apparently were moving to slow.

She watched as soon trees started to fade away and more and more rocks came into view. Then her attention went to Naruto when he pulled an item out of his seal and wrapped it around his arm. It was an Iwa headband, but it looked a bit different than a normal one.

Confused, she decided to ask about that, "Why do you have an Iwa headband Naruto?"

He glanced at her and seemed to be wondering whether to answer or not before he finally sighed, "I am an honorary Iwa genin, I have been for a few years," He held a hand stalling her before she could start asking questions, "It basically means that I can come and go in their village without security constantly watching me. I'm not allowed to know any of their important village secrets, anything a genin could know, I would be allowed to know."

"How did you become an honorary Iwa ninja."

Naruto seemed to take a moment to remember, "I won a tournament without losing any of the rounds."

Sakura blinked, "It must be some tournament then…"

The blonde haired boy chuckled, "Oh it is."

She looked over to see Sasuke glaring at Naruto, "So they let anyone participate in the tournament then?" The boy asked, though it sounded a bit demanding.

Naruto's somewhat pleasant expression instantly went away as he glared back at Sasuke, his expression colder and more scary than Sasuke's. "Of course not, if you are not an Iwa resident, then someone has to sponsor you."

"Who would sponsor an idiot like you?" Sasuke scornfully questioned.

Sakura glance worriedly between the two boys. After Naruto had beaten Sasuke he seemed to become more withdrawn from them, and was constantly glaring at Naruto. As if he blamed the blonde for something.

Suddenly Naruto was giving an annoying looking smirk as he said, "Oji-san sponsored me."

"Your Uncle is an Iwa resident?"

Kakashi snorted and glanced at Naruto, as if he was asking something, Naruto just gave a nod. "His Uncle isn't just an Iwa resident… he is the Iwa resident, better known as the Tsuchikage."

Her eyes went wide at that information and she blurted out, "But don't you call Hokage-sama your grandfather?"

"Yeah, the old man was always there for me, and Oji-san told me to call him that mostly to annoy Jiji," Naruto answered with a shrug.

"Oh," She spoke not really knowing what to say to that.

They were still a couple days out from Iwa, but she and Sasuke tensed as they saw a shadow coming in at fast speeds straight towards them "Naruto-kun!"

Sakura was shocked to see the wide grin come across Naruto's face as he gave a happily shouted "Deidara-nii!"

In front of them a large white bird landed and down jumped an older blonde boy who looked surprisingly like Naruto. The two of them hugged and Deidara affectionately ruffled Naruto's hair. "How are you doing? Did you become a genin? Who are these people with you? Have you managed to make a T-4? Oh Hello Kakashi!" Deidara rambled on a bit.

Sakura watched as Naruto grinned, "Yeah, I am now a genin of Konoha, this is my team. Team Seven led underneath Kakashi, the broody boy is Sasuke Uchiha, and the pink haired girl is Sakura Haruno. I am ready to test out the T-4's."

"Hello Deidara, have you managed to get shape transformation down?" Kakashi asked glancing up from his book.

The blonde boy beamed, "Yeah! Check it out!"

Then he made a hand sign and the bird started flying up into the air, "Katsu!" The older boy shouted and Sakura watched in shock as the bird exploded into magnifect looking Blue firebird that seemed to continue flying for a little bit before it seemed to collapse.

"So beautiful," Naruto murmured a happy grin on his face.

The two boys grinned at each other and as one they said, "Art is an explosion! Un/Dattebayo!"

She watched as the two laughed and felt a pang of envy. Naruto was their teammate, yet he seemed to get along better with the boy from Iwa then either of them.

Sasuke seemed to scowl as he snapped out, "Explosions are not art."

Naruto seemed to look horrified at this and Deidara muttered, "Begone foul demon."

"What kind of Uchiha are you that you do not like explosions?" Naruto demanded his posture changing. He seemed taller more imposing and menacing. His arms were crossed and he was scowling. She shivered at the look. Sakura didn't understand why, but sometimes Naruto acted like a completely different person.

She noticed that Kakashi just seemed to sigh and give a fond look to Naruto.

"You're not even a Uchiha! What would you know about my clan?" Sasuke growled out.

Naruto just gave an arrogant smirk, "More than you ever will."

Sasuke growled and tried to punch Naruto who easily dodged to the side, looking as if he wasn't putting in any effort. Naruto's face than blanked a bit as he looked down at Sasuke, "You Uchiha always think you are so superior just because of your bloodline."

Kakashi shook his head, "Naruto, Sasuke, enough of that."

Once again Naruto shifted beaming happily, "Of course Kaka-sensei!"

Sasuke just scowled.

Sakura couldn't help but to worry, the more they learned about their blonde teammate the more the boy seemed to become angry. She wasn't the top kunoichi for no reason, she had noticed that occasionally the boy seemed to get this… unhinged… look in his eyes.

It was worrying, and the more time she spent around the boy, the more negative qualities she could see in him. Like when they had taken a babysitting mission, Sasuke had brushed off and ignored the kid the entire time. He had even insulted the kid, calling him a worthless brat.

They would have failed the mission if it hadn't been for Naruto. He seemed to radiate kindness and protection in that moment and had comforted the boy, making the kid laugh. Still due to Sasuke's actions Kakashi saw fit to not give them anymore babysitting missions.

It had kinda ruined her dreams of him being a wonderful father to their children, but there was still a large part of her that hopped he had just been having a bad day. That when they were older he would be better. He had such a tragic history, with his clan having been murdered. So it only made sense to her that he wouldn't really know how to deal with other people.

These were her thoughts as the group continued on to Iwa, Deidara now walking alongside them.

"Sensei, me and Deidara are going to fly up overhead for a bit," Naruto stated after a couple minutes of the two doing some light chatting..

"Alright, keep within sight though."

Deidara pulled out a little bird figurine and it grew in size, to the same as the one she had seen earlier. The two boys lept onto its back and flew overhead. How could Naruto stand to be on it after watching it explode? Wasn't he worried that it would explode with them on it?

The rest of the day passed with Naruto and Deidara on the strange bird. They seemed to be chatting, about what she couldn't tell. When they stopped to rest for the night the two boys slept in the same tent as Deidara apparently didn't have one.

Tomorrow he said they would just use his birds to get to Iwa faster. Apparently because she and Sasuke were so slow Naruto was seriously behind schedule. Sakura felt so useless. Both Naruto and Sasuke were so strong, and she was so weak. But to Naruto both of them were weak, and he clearly appreciated the Iwa jounins company more.

The next day she sasuke and Kakashi were on one bird, while Naruto and Deidara were on another. Half a day later and their bird dropped down in front of the gates. "Naruto and I will be ahead, I'm sure you can find us Kakashi!" Deidara said with a wave as he and Naruto went right on in.

"Why didn't he just let us in as well?" Sakura asked.

"We are foreign shinobi so we have to sign in, and then we will be under constant watch," Kakashi answered as he started filling in some paperwork from the gate guards.

"Why was Naruto allowed in then?"

"Naruto-sama is always welcomed in Iwa," One of the gate guards answered her.

"Naruto-sama?" She repeated in disbelief. Even if she was beginning to see that Naruto wasn't the idiot dead last it was strange to hear someone call him that.

The gate guard just smirked and then they were in.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry this took so long, I kept getting distracted. But I got it done! I will try not to take so long to post the next chapter. Don't worry that will be back to Naruto's Pov. I hope you enjoyed. Have a good day everyone!**


	39. Chapter 39

Naruto grinned and leapt onto the bird with Deidara and they flew over the rest of his team. Once they were out of speaking range he turned to Deidara, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Deidara responded a tad too quickly.

"Don't give me that, I know you, and something is bothering you… if you tell me then maybe I can help?"

Deidara gave a huff, "It's Onoki… he never respects my art, and he won't let me use my family's kinjutsu so I can better my abilities. He says I need to expand upon my other skills as a Ninja and not focus so much on my art."

Naruto paused, "Doesn't the old man have that really destructive dust release?"

The young bomber nodded, "yeah, I've only seen it in action a couple times, it's no explosion, but that kind of destruction has its own beauty to it. Why doesn't the old man accept my work?"

"Have you asked Onoki why he wants you to focus on stuff other then your art?"

"No."

"Maybe if we talk to him we can figure out why he seems to want you to stop focusing on your art. Your explosions are a perfectly acceptable way to fight. And we can see about finding out why he won't let you have your family's kinjutsu."

Deidara gave him a small smile, "Naruto… if Onoki doesn't accept the fact that my art is valid…" Deidara trailed off hesitating.

"Yeah?" Naruto gently prodded after a moment.

"Do you think I could join you in Konoha?"

Naruto was shocked, "Why do you want to leave Iwa? Sure Onoki might not be accepting your art, but what about your other friends, and family?"

Deidara muttered something to quite for Naruto to hear, looking embarrassed.

"What was that?"

"You're my only friend," Deidara repeated slightly louder.

"Aww," Hashirama cooed over the boy. Madara sighed, and Tobirama glared at Hashirama.

"My other friends have left me, because of my art, they don't see the beauty like you do. You're not even able to see the colors, but you still appreciate them more than anyone else. Even my own family thinks I'm too 'obsessed' over my art. They let themselves stagnate and do not experiment with our bloodline, I have and they scorn me for it. Course they weren't laughing after they were defeated. Over the past few years my family has been dying. There is this guy, someone in a black cloak with red clouds who has been targeting members of my family. I was barely able to escape with my life. He said that he was after our family's bounty. My own village looks at me with judgement, their eyes… I can't forgive those eyes… how they mock me and my art."

Naruto hugged his friend, "Well, if you feel it is absolutely necessary to leave Iwa, I won't try and stop you, but… well I've mentioned I planned to be Hokage, and was kinda hoping you would be the next Tsuchikage."

Deidara looked shocked, "Me? As Tsuchikage? I think most think that Kurotsuchi should be next."

"Maybe, but from what I noticed the old man seemed to be preparing you, that was my thoughts anyways. Everytime I'm there he always seemed to be paying attention to you. If I had to take a guess… he wants you to focus on stuff other than your art so you can be better suited to protecting the village. Anyways I was wanting you to be Tsuchikage, cause then when we're the leaders we can have peace between our villages."

Deidara chuckled, "Imagine the other villages reactions to ours becoming allies."

"It would certainly shock them considering our villages have practically been sworn enemies since their foundations."

"And whose fault would that be I wonder?" Tobirama sarcastically mused giving a pointed glance at Madara.

Said man just shrugged unrepentant.

"What are you all doing up there?" A voice called out from below. Naruto blinked at the unfamiliar voice and looked down and saw a man, who was tall and slender. His hair was combed back and was a lighter grey than his small triangular goatee and thin moustache. He wore a long sleeved, high collared kimono.

When the man jumped up to them, and landed on the clay bird, with no reaction from Deidara or anyone else who was living, made it clear that this was a spirit. "Gengetsu-dono," Tobirama greeted with a nod.

"Tobirama-dono," The man greeted back with a bit of a smile. "What are you lot doing up here? Especially since you're traveling with the Uchiha."

Madara snorted and crossed his arms, "Everyone is a critic."

"We're traveling to Iwa with Naruto-kun here," Hashirama answered the man.

Tobirama sighed, "Don't you know the meaning of keeping a secret aniki?"

Hashirama pouted.

Gengetsu looked at Naruto, "What's so special about him?"

"Naruto-kun here can see us, he would say hi, but he's trying to keep that fact secret," Hashirama answered ignoring the glare Tobirama was giving him.

Gengutsu seemed to completely ignored that and said, "Well it isn't like I got anything better to do, especially since that brat Yagara keeps ignoring me. I went back when I heard a new Mizukage had taken over and she ignores me as well..."

The three spirts and one living gave a bit of a sweatdrop at that. "Something going on Naruto?"

"Nothing important. Just remembering something," Naruto said with a shrug, using his usual excuse when the spirts distracted him.

"So I was experimenting with a new shape for a bigger clay bomb…" Deidara started with a wide grin, "I was inspired by Kurama."

" **Oh?** " Kurama asked forming himself as he stared at Deidara. Then he looked down and realized he formed himself in thin air. " **Ah!** " The fox yelped as he started falling rapidly to the ground. The entire group stared at him as he seconds before he hit the ground he seemed to remember he was made of bugs and started to fly back up to them.

Madara snicked, " **Shut up,** " The fox grumbled before asking, " **So how did my magnificence inspire you?** "

Deidara pulled out a tiny sculpture of a fox with nine tails. "This is just the sculpture right now, I was hoping we can see about using both of our explosive abilities to make the ultimate explosion."

"Hmm it sounds interesting, sure we can see about merging both our explosions together, what do you say Kurama?"

The fox chuckled, " **It sounds fun.** "

For some inexplicable reason Hashirama shuddered and felt a very strong urge to ban the boys from working on it. Sharing a glance with Tobirama it seemed the man agreed. Madara though was cackling.

Gengetsu seemed confused. "What is with the fox? And why am I getting the sudden urge to flee for my life?"

"That is Kurama, the Kyuubi," Madara answered ignoring the glare Kurama sent him.

The two boys began to discuss the specifics of how they would merge their explosions together to make the Clay Kyuubi an awesome attack. Eventually though the day ended and they camped together. The next day they put the rest of team seven on another clay bird and took off at high speeds to Iwa.

They left behind team seven at the entrance and they flew straight to the Tsuchikage's tower. They entered the building through a window, getting an annoyed look from Onoki, "Can't you enter through a normal method brat?" He paused and glanced at Naruto, "Seems like you're back to try and keep your title," Onoki smirked, "This year I will win for sure."

Naruto chuckled, "Keep telling yourself that Oji-san."

"So you finally decided to graduate?" Onoki questioned.

"Yeah," Naruto answered. Not even glancing as he noticed Mu came through the wall. He did start pay a bit of attention though when Gengetsu pointed at him.

"Mu!" Gengetsu shouted.

Naruto inwardly shook himself and turned to Deidara, giving him a look to ask Onoki.

Mu seemed to sigh, "Gengetsu… still eyebrowless I see."

Deidara hesitated briefly, but nodded, "Old man, why do you want me to focus on stuff other than my art?"

"How dare you! Bastard! I'll kill you!" Gengetsu snarled and attacked Mu. The two started fighting.

Madara's eye twitched and he grabbed the two and flung them out of the room.

Hashirama sweatdropped and Tobirama gave him a disapproving look. Madara just crossed his arms, "They were being distracting."

Onoki finally seemed to finish his thoughts as he started speaking, "Deidara, your art is of the least importance at this time. Right now you should be focusing on honing your other skills in order to be better for the village."

Deidara as soon as he heard the words that his art was not important got angry, "You never respect my art old man! I'll show you! My art is something to be proud of, un!" Before Onoki could say anything else Deidara stormed out.

Naruto sighed and shook his head, that could have gone better. He glanced at Onoki and saw the old man had a sad look in his eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow for the tournament Oji-san!" Naruto said before running off after Deidara.

He quickly caught up with the boy and walked beside him as they went through the village on their way to the training field. He didn't say anything, seeing as Deidara looked ready to murder the next person who pissed him off.

Which was when the rest of Naruto's team found him. "There you are Naruto!" Sakura shouted.

Naruto tensed, he knew he had forgotten something. He had forgotten to tell his teammates to not shout his name.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Did someone say Naruto?"

"It is around the time he would be here…"

And just like that a hoard of fangirls was descending on him. "RUN!" Naruto and Deidara shouted breaking out into a full on run as fangirls chased after him. "You know where to find me!" Deidara called out to him as he broke away.

"Traitor!" Naruto called back.

It took him a couple minutes but he managed to get away enough to henge. If his henge looked had the face of Tobirama, and flat hair like Hashirama that was black like Madara's. Well, no one alive would really be able to tell.

He used the merge form so Kakashi would know it was him. "Hey Kakashi-sensei!" He chirped going back to where his team seemed to be in shook. Especially Sasuke.

"Naruto," Kakashi greeted with a nod.

"Eh? Naruto?" Sakura repeated.

"Yeah, word of advice Sakura, do not shout my name here. The fangirls are a menace."

"How do you have fangirls dobe?"

"The tournament."

Naruto went through the village and was soon caught up with Deidara at the gate who was waiting for him. He at least seemed calmer now. Deidara grinned as they walked to the training field. "Let's test out your T-4, do you have one prepared?"

"Yes, though I'm not sure if it will work as expected, since I have to do it in parts, the first three than add one, doing all 4 at once right now is… inadvisable."

Deidara shot him a questioning look and Naruto just glanced at his two teammates. The blonde bomber gave a nod of understanding. The two grinned at each other and placed the marble down. Then they backed away, well over one thousand feet. "Think this is far enough?" Deidara questioned at one thousand five hundred feet.

"Yeah, from what the previous bombs had showed this will be about 900 feet."

Deidara whistled, "Sweet."

" **We about to explode the T-4?** " Kurama asked a pyromaniacal gleam in his eyes.

"Yep," Naruto responded.

He crossed his fingers, "Bombs away, _Katsu._ " The last word was whispered with a voice only a true pyromaniac can do properly. Seconds passed as per normal and he heard Sasuke scoff.

BOOM!

Naruto and Deidara beamed as they watched the demonic chakra expand burning hot into a 960 foot blast radius. Naruto glanced at Sasuke and Sakura to see them gaping in shock, especially when the vision cleared and the forty foot deep crater was revealed, the sides still melting

"Dobe, teach me how to make those." Sasuke demanded staring at him.

Deidara rolled his eyes and started fiddling with one of his other explosions, throwing it and blowing it up after a moment.

"No can do, you don't have the chakra for it."

"What do you mean, if that useless guy can make them then so can I!" Sasuke said gesturing to Deidara.

Said Jounin narrowed his eyes, "My bloodline allows me to make explosions. Not just anybody can make them as I do."

"That's obviously a lie, after all the dobe can make them," Sasuke pointed out.

"I don't make them the same way Deidara does, I have to use a chakra mutation of mine to make them."

"Chakra mutation?" Sakura questioned.

"Yes, chakra mutations are what some believe lead to new bloodlines. A person would be born with a second source of chakra, and they can use this chakra differently than normal chakra. If it is passed on to a child then the mutation is somewhat refined to the purpose the first person used it for. Over several generations the mutation becomes a bloodline, being used for specific abilities. Hashirama-sama had a chakra mutation which let him manipulate wood, as it was so powerful most called it a bloodline. But as it was not passed onto his children it was in fact just a mutation," Kakashi answered her.

Hashirama nodded in confirmation to this explanation, "It's a shame it didn't pass down though…"

"This is useless, why are we here in this place instead of training to get stronger?" Sasuke muttered with a pathetic glare.

"Because I am on vacation, and you are my guards to make sure I'm not kidnapped or attacked," Naruto said with a tired sigh. It seems that Sasuke was in his more talkative mood today, which is annoying because the revenge obsessed boy was arrogant and conceited. Making talking with him for more than a few sentences a chore in patience.

"You, be kidnapped or attacked?" Sasuke snorted disbelievingly.

Deidara raised an eyebrow, "Do they not know?"

Naruto shook his head, "No."

Deidara chuckled, "You brats wanted some training then? I suppose I could teach you two a basic earth jutsu."

Sasuke scoffed, "What could a nobody like _you_ teach an Uchiha like me anyways? All I see is a failure of a shinobi. You are just some wannabe artist and your sculptures suck and barely resemble anything. The explosions themselves are just pathetic."

With each word Sasuke dug his own grave deeper and deeper. 'Sensei, you might want to get Sakura out of here.' Naruto messaged quickly.

Kakashi seeing the growing rage on the older blonde's expression shunshined Sakura out of there.

"What did you just say to me?" Deidara asked deadly quiet, his eyes shadowed.

Sasuke sneered, "I said you were a lame shinobi and even more pathetic artist."

Deidara's eyes seemed to be on fire as he snarled, "I graduated top of my classy of the Iwa Explosion corps, I have taken S-rank missions, and even killed S-rank opponents with my art!" Deidara took a deep breath and continued on going a bit slower, as if speaking to a naive child, "I have killed hundreds of enemies, whether they be bandits or ninjas. I have been trained my Tsuchikage-sama himself and I am the only ninja of my class to have become a jounin so far." As he ranted his words sped up, "You are nothing but a snot nosed genin, I can kill brats like you easily, you think your clan means anything? Think again! You think you can talk trash about my art and get away with it? You have another thing coming for you."

Deidara took a deep breath, "I can kill you in more ways than you even knew was possible, and that's just with my art alone. I could take you out even without my art. I am a Jounin of Iwa for a reason. You think you're so tough…" Deidara gave a vicious grin, "I am going to beat it through your skull that you're not."

The blonde bomber of Iwa then proceeded to attack Sasuke with taijutsu faster than the boy could keep track of, even with his Sharingan. Naruto and the spirits watched as the arrogant Uchiha heir got beatdown. They even had popcorn to eat.

'Brining Sasuke and Sakura along might not have been such a bad idea after all.' Naruto signed in amusement.

"Maybe this will teach him some humility," Tobirama stated looking at Sasuke in disgust, "At least with you, Madara, you can back up your arrogant claims."

Madara just nodded, "He certainly didn't get his father's brains."

"Doesn't this seem a bit harsh?" Hashirama asked worried as Deidara kicked Sasuke hard.

"No," Tobirama and Madara said at the same time.

'And if you got those two in agreement, then obviously that is the correct answer,' Naruto signed cheekily.

Hashirama sighed but didn't say anything further.

They continued to watch as Sasuke was 'trained' in endurance by Deidara.

* * *

 **A/n: I hope you enjoyed! I don't know when the next update for Gosutoai will be, but Calling Upon the Shadows of the Past will be updated Tomorrow.**


	40. Chapter 40

**Warning: This chapter contains something that is a horrible, terrible, unspeakable act of humilation. No sane person should ever be forced to suffer this cruel and unusual punishment.**

* * *

 _oOoOo- Sasuke's Pov -oOoOo_

He looked up at the ceiling of the hotel room, wincing as he slowly sat up, he was still sore from the 'training' Deidara had given him. He huffed, still angry that even with his sharingan he had been unable to beat that blonde bomb lover. Not only that but Deidara and Naruto seemed like such good friends.

Why was Naruto friends with that loser? Why had Naruto picked to be friends with that bug boy instead of him? His father had been no help when he had asked many years ago. Saying something useless that people could have a lot of friends.

He didn't need friends.

But it would have been nice to have Naruto fight by his side. The blonde idiot was strong. Why did Naruto have that strength? Why was he so strong? Sasuke should be the stronger one. He should be the one with the power. He _needed_ the strength to take vengeance on his brother, to punish _him_ for the crimes against his clan.

Instead Naruto had all the power. He could create those strange bombs, and had that large weapon the gunbai. Naruto was no slouch with taijutsu, or even ninjutsu. How could Naruto learn all of that? Was it simply because the Hokage favored him? Was there some other reason Naruto could be so strong?

How was it that Naruto could use a gunbai? Sasuke hadn't even heard of that weapon outside of the stories that had been told to him by his father. Stories told of the clan from generation to generation. Sasuke didn't really believe some of the tales though, figuring them to be exaggerations. After all it was unlikely that one man could defeat an entire village.

Sasuke shook his head, trying to refocus his thoughts. He wanted to know how Naruto could be so powerful. Was it perhaps because of this _chakra mutation_ that Kakashi had told them about. Sasuke wasn't sure if he believed what the lazy sensei told them. That people could be born with a second source of chakra, that this mutation could become a bloodline if it was passed on.

That the shodai's mokuton was not in fact a bloodline, but a mutation. That was probably the most unbelievable information of all. Sasuke had never even seen this other chakra Naruto supposedly had. Then again, Naruto was pretty secretive. He didn't tell them anything unless he had to. Sasuke got up and started getting ready, today Naruto would be doing whatever that tournament was.

Kakashi mentioned last night it was unlikely they would be able to see it, so they would have to figure out what to do for the day. As he exited the room he saw Sakura exit hers as well. She smiled at him and instantly was by his side.

Though she remained silent, sending him a worried glance. Probably due to the fact he was scowling. What was this tournament that Naruto won, supposedly without losing any rounds?

He tried to figure out how Naruto could participate in it, but the blonde had just glared at him and told him that a non resident needed a sponsor. Of course Sasuke couldn't believe that anyone from Iwa would sponsor Naruto. He wasn't liked in Konoha, so why would a foreign village, one known for hating Konoha like Naruto?

Naruto had smirked, in an almost Uchiha like way as he told them that his 'uncle' sponsored him. Of course Kakashi then had to tell them it was the Tsuchikage that Naruto called his uncle. It just wasn't fair. Naruto was on a familial basis with so many powerful people.

And then that other blonde idiot had made his appearance. Sasuke growled at remembering Naruto shouting 'Deidara-nii' how the two of them acted like brothers. Kakashi even seemed to know the boy as he asked him about 'shape transformation' resulting in the bird the boy had been traveling on to explode into a blue firebird.

It had been impressive, but Sasuke was in no way going to let the others know that. Then the two idiots went on about the explosion being art. Laughing and smiling. It irked him, how could they be so happy and carefree. He couldn't take seeing Naruto being so happy with the other boy. So he snapped at them, "Explosions are not art."

He got twin looks of horror from the two as Deidara muttered, "Begone foul demon."

Sasuke gritted his teeth glaring at the older blonde, how dare he call him a demon! Then Naruto seemed to shift. Sasuke had seen this a few times before, how the blonde seemed to change and almost become someone else. He suspected that the blonde had multiple personality disorder. Naruto straightened his back from his more relaxed posture and he crossed his arms and scowled as he questioned, "What kind of Uchiha are you that you do not like explosions?" His tone was condescending and scolding, as if Naruto knew what being a Uchiha was like and Sasuke didn't.

Sasuke growled, "You're not even a Uchiha!" Of that Sasuke was sure. "What would _you_ know about my clan?" He demanded to know.

Only for Naruto to smirk arrogantly, and now that Sasuke thought about it… that smirk did seem like a Uchiha smirk. Naruto gave him a smug look as he taunted, "More that you ever will."

He couldn't let that insult slide, of course and so he tried to punch the infuriating boy. Who sidestepped easily. It didn't even take the boy any effort. Sasuke watched as the blonde seemed to shift again and his face blanked revealing no emotions. Despite the other boy being a couple centimeters shorter Sasuke got the impression that Naruto was looking down at him as he spoke in a matter of fact tone, "You Uchiha always think you are so superior just because of your bloodline."

Sasuke was about to retort when Kakashi told them to stop and Naruto just beamed happily. It annoyed him that Naruto could get away with insulting his clan. Kakashi didn't even try and scold him for it. But Kakashi had scolded him. When Naruto had been up on that bird with Deidara, Kakashi had been telling him to 'calm down' and to stop being so 'antagonistic'.

"Do you have any idea what the tournament could be Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked him as they wandered around.

"No," He answered her. Scowling again. Why did Naruto get such special treatment?

"Naruto-kun must be pretty strong to be the champion of the tournament…" Sakura mused out loud.

Sasuke scoffed, "He's not that strong." Sasuke knew he was lying. He just didn't want to believe that the dead last could be so strong. Though he knew the boy was. Sasuke just didn't understand how. He had been friends with Naruto, before Naruto had picked to be friends with that bug boy instead of him. Sasuke had known even back then that Naruto was stronger than his status as dead last indicated. It still made no sense to him that Naruto wouldn't reveal how strong he was to the class, to stop the others from teasing him and bullying him over the fact he was the 'clanless dead last'. They saw his inability to do the bunshin. And the weird muted henges he did and thought Naruto was weak.

"Are you talking about Naruto-sama?" An Iwa ninja asked them with a curious tilt of his head.

Sakura nodded.

The Iwa ninja seemed to be judging them before he grinned, "Naruto-sama is really strong, that's why he is the reigning champion of the tournament for the past 5 years. Beating even Tsuchikage-sama."

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief, "How can the dobe beat a Kage? Aren't they supposed to be strong?"

Sakura frowned at him, but he ignored her. The Iwa ninja, who had a scar on his cheek grinned at them, "So you think you can do better?"

He scoffed in response, of course he could do better. "Alright then, how about a little deal, I will sponsor you in the tournament so you can get a chance to beat Naruto. If one of you win against him, I will give the both of you 5 jutsu scrolls each."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow interested, "And if we lose?" He questioned. Of course he wouldn't lose, but it was still better to know the terms before agreeing.

"If you lose you will suffer public humiliation."

That didn't sound that bad. "Very well than, I agree."

The Iwa ninja smirked, "And what about you?" He questioned looking at Sakura.

She hesitated. "You both won't need to beat him, only one of you. With both of you in you have a higher chance to beat him."

"Alright then," she finally agreed after glancing at Sasuke.

"Wonderful, my name is Āsusukarā, I will be your sponsor. Follow me."

With that they guy led them to a large stadium, "This stadium is where we host the tournament, it is also where we host the Chunin exams when it comes time for us to do so." The group walked in and Sasuke saw many ninjas and civilians milling about. Looking around he saw Naruto and Kakashi speaking with an old man, who wore the Tsuchikage hat.

Āsusukarā led them over to the man and quickly they were signed up. "You made a bet? To win against me?" Naruto asked them shocked before he laughed. "You guys are going to lose."

Sasuke snorted.

Naruto smirked, "Do you even know what the tournament is?"

"This tournament is one of the most fierce competitions, desperation and fear are common emotions to feel. If your not strong enough this competition could break your spirit," Deidara told them after Sakura shook her head.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, thinking them to be over dramatic. Naruto scoffed at them before turning to Onoki, "I'm going to defeat you once more Old man, usual bet?"

Onoki grumbled, but nodded.

"Hello and welcome! It is once more time for the formal annual tournament! Non-competitors please make your way to the stands, all competitors please find a seat at one of the tables."

With that people started moving, Sasuke noticed that Onoki and Naruto sat at different tables, while Kakashi went up to take a seat in the stands. With a shrug Sasuke went to sit at a more central table and Sakura went to a corner table.

A few minutes later the announcer came back on, "As you all know we have Solid Hand Naruto, Slayer of Wicked Eyes here to keep his place as the reigning champ of Janken. Fallen King Onoki will once more hope that Solid hands loses a single hand so Naruto-sama is forced to forfeit due to their yearly bet. But this year we also got a grudge match between Kurotsuchi and Deidara! Deidara is looking to regain his title as 3rd place winner which Kurotsuchi took in the last semi-formal match! We also have Naruto-sama's teammates Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno joining us this year, with them being so close with solid hand Naruto, it makes one wonder if they will display any of the talent that Solid Hand Naruto displays."

"But before we can witness these sure to be spectacular matches we have to start from the bottom. Remember, cheating is allowed so long as you don't get caught! Let's start this party with Round One 5 rounds of 50 hands! BEGIN!"

Sasuke was shocked, all of this drama over janken? He turned to face his opponent and started to play. He would win this easily. He beat his opponent, but he still lost a few hands. If what the announcer said was true then Naruto didn't lose a single hand. And if he did then he had to forfeit.

Round two came quickly and it was now 5 rounds of 100 hands. When the third round started there were a little more than 80 people from what Sasuke noticed. "As we prepare to enter the third round, the wheel of additions is being set up. For those unaware, since this is the annual tournament in which the ten best players must contest against everyone else on fair footing, there is an extra rule in place. The wheel will be spun each round until there is an uneven amount of contestants left."

The wheel was set up next to the announcer who spun the wheel. The wheel clicked rapidly for a minute until it started to slow down. Click. Click… Click. "Alright the wheel has declared that dogs, cats,and chickens will be added into the arena! There shall be a ten minute break while we gather up the animals. Contestants are not allowed to leave the arena."

Ten minutes passed by in stiffness as the atmosphere quickly became tense as competitors glared at each other. Sasuke turned to glance at Naruto and saw him with his arms crossed sneering at the few who glared at him. When someone glanced at him without glaring Naruto would just smirk seemingly smug about his position.

Soon though the animals were brought in and released, it was a gathering of more animals than Sasuke could ever remember seeing. There seemed to be hundreds of dogs and cats. "Now with the animals, the third round will be 5 rounds of 100 hands. Begin!"

And with that they started, everything seemed calm for a couple minutes, but then animals started to get rowdy as they fought each other, chased each other. Some people started to be disqualified early for missing the time to show the hand position. "Eep! Get off of me!" he distantly heard Sakura screech. Her voice managing to be heard over the symphony of hisses and howls, meows and barks. A flash of pink caught his vision and he saw her looking upset as she left to the stands following another disqualified person.

He scoffed as he threw out scissors, how pathetic that she lost in this stupid tournament. It was easy to figure out his opponents style and strategy. It didn't take too much longer for the round to end. "Alright with 41 contestants remaining we will now change to a 1v1 knockout style. Two names will be randomly selected. If you lose you are out. But if you win your name will be placed back in the drawing bag. This means that some might be called multiple times and others not at all as we eliminate people until there is only ten people remaining. This is the humiliation round, which means that if you lose the wheel of humiliation is spun and the loser will face whatever punishment the wheel dictates. Of course a person may instead forfeit a match if they don't want to risk losing."

Names were called and Sasuke noticed that most people choose to forfeit after a staredown at their opponent instead of fighting them. Sasuke couldn't understand why, even after a few people lost. The punishments didn't seem to bad to him. One was a simple as a person dying their hair, another had to dress as a chicken and act like one for awhile.

It didn't escape his notice that the crowd seemed disappointed and the losers relieved. Perhaps it meant they got off lightly then. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as Naruto's named was finally called against some other ninja named Asusukara. "Damn, just my luck," Sasuke heard the man grumble.

He saw that Naruto seemed amused as he chuckled, "I assume you want to forfeit?"

The man nodded, "Ain't no way that I'm going to suffer humiliation, if I thought I had a chance of winning I would risk it. But not against you Solid Hand."

"Winner by forfeit Solid Hand Naruto!" The announcer called out before a few more rounds went, most forfeiting.

"Alright and our next contestants are… Kurotsuchi the sublime and Uchiha, Sasuke!"

So he walked up to the central table, an older teenager, about 16 walked up confidently. Her hair was short and framed her face. Her black eyes glinted as she looked down at him. "You should just forfeit. You have no chance against me, I have held a spot in the top ten for the past 6 years."

He glared at her in response even as he observed her, trying to work out what kind of player she would be. She seemed to wear what he assumed was the standard Iwa attire as he had seen others wearing similar clothes. A red uniform with the right sleeve missing and the brown Iwa flak jacket. "As if I would let some female beat me."

Sasuke didn't know what prompted him to say that, but he hated the way she was looking at him as if he was nothing. He gritted his teeth, no one ever saw him as someone who was strong. They all thought he was weak… Itachi… Naruto… he would become stronger than both of them. He would prove them wrong. He was strong.

Kurotsuchi glared at him, "Just for that I'm going to make you suffer."

With that the two began a fierce battle, both winning and losing at an equal rate, which seemed to frustrate her. Hand after hand they played, and Sasuke was unable to find any pattern to her movement. At first it seemed that she focused heavily on paper and rock, but then she switched to more paper and scissors. Then scissors and rock. There was no telling what move she was going to make next.

If only he could use his sharingan, than he would be able to beat her and Naruto. Unfortunately that would be considered 'obvious' cheating. He barely managed to win the first round as it was 51 to 49. The next round Kurotsuchi managed to win, 51 to his 44.

As soon as someone hit 51 the round was over, even if there were still hands to be played. Sasuke growled in frustration and Kurotsuchi smirked as she won the third round. "You're going down emo brat."

He managed to win the fourth round and it was tied 2-2, all he needed to do was win this last round and he would be closer to his goal of beating Naruto. He narrowed his eyes in concentration. He was not going to lose.

Kurotsuchi chuckled, "Are you scared yet, duck butt?"

Sasuke felt as if his teeth would break from how hard they were gritted together. He glared at her hatefully as they played the final round. He won, he lost, he won, he lost. Back and forth they went, hand after hand until it was 49-50 in her favor.

This was the final hand, if he could win this he could tie it up and they would do another round. If she won then he lost and would have to go through with the 'humiliating punishment'.

As the referee called out the words he decided to go rock.

He pushed his fist out at the same time as she did and he watched as she unfurled her fingers into paper.

He had lost.

"And the winner is Kurotsuchi the sublime!" There was a loud cheer and the announcer waited a moment for it to die down, "Alright let us see what is Sasuke Uchiha's punishment for losing…" The announcer gave the wheel a hard spin.

Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Cli-Cli-Cli-Cli-Clic-Clic-Click-Click..Click...Click….Click.

Sasuke saw the wheel land on an obnoxiously pink slice of the wheel, "And Sasuke will be undergoing the humiliation of Pinkie Pie 'Giggle at the ghostly'"

He heard a few mutters of confusion and a few chuckles. Then he heard Naruto guffawing loudly. "Please give us a minute to set up the humiliation," The announcer spoke and a couple Iwa ninjas dragged him away.

"Use your sharingan and memorize this," An Iwa ninja commanded playing a small video with lyrics. Sasuke turned his sharingan on and watched.

Then he paled in horror. "I have to sing that?" He questioned.

The Iwa ninja smirked, "You also will have to dress up and then do a dance as well."

Another ninja came in holding the clothes, "Time for you to change."

"Do I have to?" Sasuke complained.

"Yes. This is the punishment. There is no other way. Face your punishment with dignity."

Sasuke whimpered as he got dressed in the dress which was mostly pink with some white and a few other colors. The top half was white with purple lining and had a pink heart in the middle of it. Around the waist was a purple bow and then the bottom of the dress puffed out. It was also pink, but on the side there were three balloons two blues and one yellow in the center. Then he had to wear a blue top which had sleeves halfway to his elbows and a blue bracelet on each of his wrists. Underneath was white stockings and tall blue boots with white ribbons and pink bows.

Then for the final touch they pinned a hot pink wig onto his hair. The hair was long and curly and floofy. "For the dance, do what Pinkie Pie did, though you don't have to be on your hands and feet. You only have to sing Pinkie Pie's lines."

"You ready?" The guy asked after another couple minutes.

"No," Sasuke grumbled crossing his arms.

"To bad, it's time."

With that he walked out onto the stage which had been transformed to look like the forest that had been in the video he watched. "And now it is time for Uchiha, Sasuke to face his punishment for losing. He will be performing as Pinkie Pie for the song 'Giggle at the ghostly.'"

'Someone end me now,' Sasuke thought as he tried to not blush in embarrassment and failing horribly. He heard the music start and so gritting his teeth he started to sing the stupid song. If he was forced to do this he was not going to put any inflection in his voice.

"When I was a little filly and the sun was going down."

"Tell me he's not..." Naruto said filling in the next line with a chuckle.

Already he could hear people snickering. He winced as he started to move a little in a poor imitation of a dance. He knew he looked more like he was stomping his feet in protest. He didn't care.

"The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown."

He winced as he heard Sakura fill in the next line, "He is."

It seems that they got his teammates to fill in the other roles of this ridiculous song.

"I'd hide under my pillow from what I thought I saw, but Granny Pie said that wasn't the way to deal with fears at all." He stated rather than sung as he _pranced_ around the stage looking at the various trees.

Kakashi turned a page of his book, "Then what is?"

He inwardly was sobbing, why was he having to suffer this!? It was all Naruto's fault. "She said: "Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall, learn to face your fears you'll see that they can't hurt you. Just laugh to make them disappear."

Sasuke stopped is inane dancing in front of a tree. "Ha. Ha. Ha." He stated blandly. With a small poof the 'scary' face disappeared. He rolled his eyes as he had already seen that they were using a genjutsu to place the face on the fake tree.

Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi all gave out a small gasp of pretend shook.

"So giggle at the ghostly. Guffaw at the grossly. Crack up at the creepy. Whoop it up with the weepy. Chortle at the kooky. Snortle at the spooky." He monotoned as he continued to do the stupid _prancing_ around the stage.

'Please if anyone has any mercy end me now,' he silently begged in his mind.

Finally though it was time for the last part of the stupid song, "And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna…" He sighed and gave the most deadpan laugh he could " .Ha."

He finally stopped the dancing and faced the audience as he said the last word, "Laugh."

The crowd broke out into rancorous laughing and people cheered. Sasuke walked as quickly as he could without making it seem like running back to the changing room and put on his regular clothes. It was as he was making his way to sit next to Sakura and Kakashi in the audience stand that he remembered he had lost the bet. He would have to suffer through some other punishment.

He groaned as he sat down next to Sakura who gazed down at Naruto worried. Others forfeited and some lost, and a couple people had to suffer their own horrible unspeakable punishments that were nearly as bad as his.

After another half hour thought there remained only ten people, Naruto among them, as was Deidara, Onoki, and that female Kurotsuchi that he fought against. "It is now time for the ranking! To start the final ten will each draw numbers to show where you are currently ranked. After that the ten people will challenge each other until they are either satisfied with their spot, or thirty minutes have passed. It will be 3 rounds of 10 hands. After the half hour has passed, we can start on the final challenges!"

Sasuke watched as the ten drew numbers and then once they had done they lined up on order from Naruto being in last place to Kurotsuchi holding number one. "Remember you can only challenge the person above you in rank! Start!" He watched as the ten started to challenge each other. He mostly focused on Naruto as he quickly beat number 9 and then once number 8 had won against 7 he fought the new 8 remaining unchallenged by the person he had beat to reach number 9. This continued on until Naruto was the second highest person, underneath the Tsuchikage. Sasuke saw the two of them nod at each other in greeting. Deidara quickly was in number 3 while Kurotuschi was in number 4. The two of them kept fighting each other and switching positions between 3 and 4.

A whistle blew at the end of the half hour and the ten finished up there matches. "Now it is time for the final challenges, this year it will be 3 rounds of 50 hands. Tenth place?"

"I challenge," The guy said and proceed to play against number 9 but lost. They continued on a few changing ranks, but he paid no mind to them. It was once Kurotsuchi was challenged by number 5 that he watched.

She beat the person then challenged Deidara and lost. Deidara challenged Naruto but lost. Finally it was Naruto verses the Tsuchikage Onoki. "It is now time for the match we have all been waiting for! As we all want to see the intense battle between Fallen King Onoki and Solid Hand Naruto, slayer of the wicked eyes than we shall have longer matches. It will be 5 Rounds of 100 hands played out to full. As per normal Onoki and Naruto have made their usual bet that if Naruto loses a single hand he must forfeit."

The crowd cheered and the announcer chuckled, "Let's begin then!"

Sasuke watched as the two fought and was shocked in that Naruto never lost, he made it seem easy that he was beating Onoki. It wasn't long that the rounds were done and he saw Onoki slump down in defeat, he had lost all of them.

Some tables were brought out and the final ten sat down and a few ninjas brought out some posters and people were getting up and making their way down. "Naruto-sama!" He heard many female voices call out and shuddered as he saw them rush towards Naruto.

Still it was better the blonde than him.

Kakashi dismissed them, telling them to do as they wished. So Sasuke left the building, he didn't want to be around the crowd of people who had seen him have to do that stupid song and dance. A few minutes later he saw the ninja he and Sakura had made a bet with earlier coming towards him, Sakura following him looking meek.

"Alright, I got the perfect punishments for you two since you lost. Follow me," Asusukara spoke chuckling. Sasuke scowled and thought about running away, but he knew the ninja was probably a chunin or jonin, and would easily catch him. At least he would face his punishment with dignity.

They were led to a hair salon and Sakura was forced to get her hair cut short, in a style similar to Kurotsuchi. He had his hair dyed to a hot pink color. The exact shade of Pinkie Pie.

Sasuke wanted to die in mortification, especially when Iwa people kept calling him that. Eventually he and Sakura were led to a restaurant with Naruto and the Tsuchikage. Naruto smirked at him, "Ended up liking your hair pink?"

"No," Sasuke growled.

"We lost a bet," Sakura informed them shifting her hair looking awkward. The style didn't suit her at all.

"Tomorrow, we will head out after midday to head back to Konoha. Naruto, try not to cause mass panic with that experiment of yours and Deidara."

Sasuke watched as the two blondes just grinned, "Well you know we will be working on it, so really there is no need to panic."

The Tsuchikage narrowed his eyes, "What are you two up to?"

The blondes just smiled, and Sasuke knew there was nothing innocent about them. It wasn't his issue to deal with. Finally they retired to his room and he fell asleep.

He awoke to a roar.

Leaping out of his bed he dashed to the window and stared in horror as he saw at the far edge of the village a giant nine-tailed fox. The kyuubi. How was it here?! Didn't the 4th defeat it?

He saw the tails whip around as the fox roared again. He activated his sharingan and hastily covered his eyes as he saw the fox was about to explode. Even with his hands covering his eyes he saw white behind his eyelids.

"NARUTO UZUMAKI AND DEIDARA BO!" A voice roared out and Sasuke saw the Tsuchikage briefly as he lept towards the direction the Kyuubi had been.

Sasuke debated going after and finding out what was going on then shrugged and returned to his bed. He could ask the dobe tomorrow.

* * *

 **A/n: Here we go, another chapter of Gosutoai! I would like to thank Esellyn for giving me the idea of the song for Sasuke's cruel and** **unusual** **punishment.** **I Kinda feel sorry for Sasuke if I'm honest though. That punishment is just cruel.**

 **I am working on rewriting this story, but I wanted to know whether you guys want me to update the chapters on this, or if you would rather I post a new gosutoai that would only have rewritten chapters. Please put your vote on the Poll I have on my page. I WILL NOT count any votes cast in the reviews. Thank you all for your patience and support.**


	41. Chapter 41

oOoOo- Naruto's Pov -oOoOo

Naruto grinned at Deidara as they were at the training field. Between the two of them was the tiny little sculpture of Kurama. Tobirama glanced between Naruto and the sculpture, "This is a bad idea."

Hashirama nodded in agreement, "Both of you already create large explosions, both of them combined is just overkill."

Madara rolled his eyes, "Stop being so dramatic, it will be fine."

"You ready?" Deidara asked, his eyes shining in unholy glee.

Naruto matched the look, answering with a maniacal grin, "Yes I am."

The two boys both grabbed the clay figure and started channeling chakra into it. Deidara put in his explosive chakra, and Naruto put in Kurama's chakra. They mixed the two chakra's together slowly, keeping an eye out for any sort of complication or incompatibility between the two chakra's. It was an hour later that they both fully put in the chakra, all of Deidara's and nine-tails worth of Kurama's chakra was slowly fed into the tiny sculpture.

The tiny sculpture was radiating Kurama's aura, which was currently glee, throughout the process, but as soon as they finished it sinked into the sculpture and disappeared. Naruto some black and darker shades of grey appear on the little figure. "Wow."

"What?" Naruto asked glancing over at his friend.

"It looks exactly like Kurama."

" **It does bear a striking resemblance to me, I would assume it is due to all my chakra we fed to it,** " Kurama spoke, his bug clone appearing on the ground lying down, he looked tired.

"Alright, shall we see what this looks like full size?" Naruto asked.

"Sounds good, yeah. How big do you think it will be?"

Naruto gave a shrug, "I don't know, what do you think?"

"I was thinking about 30 feet myself."

He gave a nod and they both backed away from the statue to give it room to expand, though they weren't sure how big the clay would expand, if it was Deidara's chakra alone it might be predictable. But, Kurama's chakra was another matter and it might not react in a way they were expecting.

Deidara grinned and activated the sculpture to expand it. It rapidly grew bigger and bigger and the two boys had to jump away to avoid getting crushed. When it stopped they looked upwards and gulped. The sculpture had become full size, "This isn't good! Shrink it back down."

The bomber of Iwa nodded and crossed his fingers, the giant clay Kyuubi roared. " **Oh shit,** " Kurama spoke as the giant version of himself seemed to glare down at them and it's tails started waving around.

One of the tails swung towards them and the two boys rapidly threw themselves away, "Kurama! What's happening?!"

"My chakra is out of my control now! It's bent on causing destruction!" The bug-fox clone shouted back.

"I can't shrink it!" Deidara yelled at them. "Do you know a powerful lightning jutsu?!"

"No!" Naruto shouted back.

" **RUN!** " Kurama yelled out.

The fox roared again it's tails carving paths in the landscape around them as they dodged for their lives. Running as fast as they could to get away.

" **Get underground!** " Kurama shouted and the two boys quickly used _Doton: Hidden in Stones Jutsu_ to dive into the rock, still fleeing through the earth. The earth trembled and shook around them as a large ear piercing boom filled the air, leaving his ears ringing.

The earth was heating up as Naruto and Deidara ran away. It was only after they had made it to cool earth that they stopped running and made their way above ground, coughing as smoke filled air filled their lungs.

They turned to where the clay Kyuubi had been and gaped. A half mile from where they stood was a giant crater. Deidara whistled and then choked on the smoke that was slowly rising up and blowing away.

"Naruto Uzumaki and Deidara Bo!" Onoki's bellow rang out from a distance.

The two explosion users shared a glance and gulped. "Think it's too late to flee for our lives?" Deidara questioned.

Naruto glanced at Tobirama's narrowed eye expression as the ghost arrived and nodded, "Yeah, it's far too late."

"It was great knowing you," Deidara said gloomily, despair filling his eyes.

"Well, at least we went out with a bang," Naruto said placing a hand on Deidara's shoulder.

"Yeah! Man just look at the crater, how big do you think it is?"

"Based on the smaller explosions and how they progressed I would say…" Naruto paused trying to recall the numbers he had once calculated, "1,680 feet deep, 840 feet round, and the actual radius probably spread out to 30,720 feet, that is if your chakra combined with it didn't make it bigger."

"Wow…" Deidara muttered.

Both the boys watched as Onoki's figure got bigger and bigger, coming towards them rapidly. Within another minute the Tsuchikage had arrived. "What do you two fools think you are doing?!"

"We were-"

"How could you even think of making a giant Kyuubi like that without informing me!" Onoki shouted interrupting Deidara as he tried to explain. "I have allowed you to continue practicing your bombs, but I told you that you were to inform me if you ever experimented in a new explosion! We don't need a repeat of your C4 incident! I can't believe you would be so idiotic as to do something as foolish as this Deidara!"

"I-"

"And you!" Onoki shouted rounding on Naruto, "You may not be an Iwa ninja, but surely you aren't so brainless as to think making a full scale Kyuubi in another country is a good idea, especially with what you contain!"

Naruto looked down into the ground, wishing to disappear.

"Do you know how much panic you two caused back in Iwa!? People were preparing to evacuate and flee for those few seconds that the Kyuubi was there! What on earth possessed you to make a large scale model of the Kyuubi?"

Deidara opened his mouth, "No! Don't answer, I don't want to hear it, I have had enough of you messing around with these explosions of yours! You are banned from using explosions!"

"What?! No! You can't do that old man!" Deidara shouted back his eyes wide.

"Yes I can! You are focusing way to much on those explosions of yours! You need to work on your other skills!"

"I'm already an A-rank ninja due to my explosions though! If you would allow me to use my clan's kinjutsu then I could easily be S-rank! You're holding me back!" Deidara yelled as he glared.

"I've told you before that you aren't responsible enough to handle your clan's Kinjutsu! You need to work on your other skills if you ever hope to take this hat from me!" Onoki shouted back glaring.

Deidara froze, his eyes widening.

Naruto blinked, recalling the words he had spoken to the older boy the other day.

 _Naruto hugged his friend, "Well, if you feel it is absolutely necessary to leave Iwa, I won't try and stop you, but… well I've mentioned I planned to be Hokage, and was kinda hoping you would be the next Tsuchikage."_

 _Deidara looked shocked, "Me? As Tsuchikage? I think most think that Kurotsuchi should be next."_

" _Maybe, but from what I noticed the old man seemed to be preparing you, that was my thoughts anyways. Everytime I'm there he always seemed to be paying attention to you. If I had to take a guess… he wants you to focus on stuff other than your art so you can be better suited to protecting the village. Anyways I was wanting you to be Tsuchikage, cause then when we're the leaders we can have peace between our villages."_

 _Deidara chuckled, "Imagine the other villages reactions to ours becoming allies."_

Onoki had never given confirmation when Deidara confronted him in the office, but now he had. "You… you want me to become Tsuchikage?"

"Yes," Onoki said rolling his eyes, "wasn't it obvious?"

"But… everyone thinks that it's going to be Kurotsuchi that gets the hat next."

Onoki shook his head, "She does not have the right temperament, she feels like she will inherit the hat and is not working hard for it. You on the other hand never show any interest in becoming Tsuchikage, but you work hard to get what you want. Even if that is just improving your explosions. If you had that temperament for your other ninja skills you could easily become a kage level ninja."

Deidara seemed shocked into silence.

"Like you said, your art alone has made you into an A-rank ninja, almost an S-rank ninja, but your other skills are lacking, barely above chunin level, at most low jounin level. Just imagine if you improved those other skills to high-jounin, you would be an S-rank threat without furthering your art anymore. And if you have improved your art then that makes you even more deadly. Also, what are you going to do if someone ever figures out how to neutralise your explosions? Without your art what would you do?"

Deidara paused, "Use bigger explosions?"

Onoki glowered at him, "Which they already figured out how to neutralise! It wouldn't work, even using the C4 would fail if they were clever enough to charge their own body with lightning."

Deidara winced.

"After they neutralise your strongest jutsu and you've near killed yourself from using your kinjutsu they would easily pick you off! Do you understand what I'm getting at? Why you need to focus on your other skills?" Onoki questioned with a tired sigh.

The older boy looked hesitant before he nodded, "Yeah, I understand old man."

"Good."

"But… we hadn't meant for the clay Kyuubi to get so big, it was only meant to be about twenty or thirty feet tall. After we saw how big it was, we tried to shrink it. It was out of our control though, their was too much of Kurama's chakra in it."

" **Sorry, I didn't think my chakra would react in such a manner… I thought it would be like the little bombs we make,** " Kurama apologized with a careless shrug.

Onoki blinked, "I see, so you decided to explode it?"

"I didn't," Deidara shook his head in denial.

"Neither did I."

" **I did, the clay version of myself wanted to kill Deidara and Naruto since they were trying to control it,** " Kurama explained.

Onoki just sighed again and pinched his nose, "Your punishment stands Deidara, for the next year you are to not work on your art, but you can still use it in a _battle_ situation. IF you work hard on your other skills and I see serious effort, and you don't break your punishment, I will let you have your clan's kinjutsu."

When Onoki first spoke Deidara looked ready to protest, but when the old man finished speaking Deidara looked thoughtful. "Alright, you're on old man," Deidara said with a grin after a moment.

Naruto beamed happily as Deidara smiled at Onoki. Onoki cast a look at the big crater, "Well looks like we got a place for a new lake."

Deidara and Naruto both shared a sheepish grin.

"I may not be able to punish you brat, but I will be sending a letter to Hiruzen," Onoki said with narrowed eyes.

Naruto sunk down with a depressive cloud over his head. "Jiji is going to scold me again…"

"Again?" Deidara questioned.

"Yeah, my last mission got a bit out of hand," Naruto replied waving a hand dismissively as he stood back up from his crouched stance. "Say, old man, how come I never meet Iwa's jinchuuriki, don't you have two of them?"

Kurama perked up at this looking inquisitively at Onoki.

"Han and Roshi left a year or so before you first came to Iwa, they can come back if they so please, in fact if they hear about this incident they may pop up. They left to learn more about themselves as Jinchuuriki and to work on their powers without inciting the village into a panic."

Naruto sweatdropped at the pointed look Onoki gave him.

"Now, off to bed you two!" Onoki commanded.

The two boys trudged back into Iwa.

* * *

 **A/n: It's NaNoWriMo, which means I will be working on writing 50,000 words this month. I have picked to do so for Gosutoai. I have yet to decide how I will update if I do write a chapter every day. So I have pushed off on working on the rewrite. I hope this was a good conclusion to my whole Deidara vs. Onoki plot I had going on in these Iwa chapters. Next chapter Naruto will be back in Konoha. Probably.**


	42. Chapter 42

oOoOo- Sarutobi's Pov -oOoOo

"Naruto. Care to explain to me why Onoki is complaining to me about troublesome blondes causing him double the paperwork?"

The boy sweatdropped, "Erm… by accident?"

"Explain what happened."

"Well…"

oOoOo- Naruto's Pov -oOoOo

Deidara and Naruto continued to trudge back towards Iwa in silence.

"I wonder why those three have been following you two?" Tobirama questioned with a frown.

"What do you mean?" Hashirama asked.

"Since we first came out there has been three chakra signatures following us. One is Itachi Uchiha, another is a water user with a large chakra reserves, and the third is..." Tobirama frowned, "Odd, his chakra seems to flow in a strange manner."

"I wonder what the three want," Madara questioned narrowing his eyes.

'Where?' Naruto questioned shifting his right arm slightly.

"A few hundred feet back," Tobirama answered before moving away towards the direction he pointed out.

Naruto and the unaware Deidara continued on towards Iwa, though Naruto did get them to pick up the pace a bit, saying he wanted to be rested before having to deal with Sasuke and Sakura. "I feel sorry for you, having to deal with that arrogant unartistic prick."

"Sasuke was the rookie of the year, so he believes he is really strong, he didn't know that some people actually act like ninja's and pretend to be worse. Plus my bunshin and henge isn't the greatest."

Deidara gave a nod, "Isn't he from some clan of Konoha?"

"Yes, the Uchiha clan, once hailed as the strongest clan in Konoha after the Senju died out. They have a dojutsu which allows them to cast genjutsu with just a glance, as well as have a predictive ability, they see the tiniest movements and can know what your are going to do. It also allows them to copy jutsu's, course most of the clan has been killed by Sasuke's brother."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that, the Uchiha Massacre, which made Itachi Uchiha an S-rank criminal."

Naruto gave a nod and glanced at Madara who was staring behind him. It seems that the three people would be making a move.

"You seem to know an awful lot about the Sharingan Naruto-kun."

Naruto and Deidara spun around, and saw Itachi standing behind them, "Speak of evil and it shall appear," Naruto commented dryly.

Still the other two who had been with him weren't there, and Tobirama was still gone, obviously he was with the other two members. Naruto eyed the cloak that Itachi was wearing, it was black with red clouds.

Akatsuki, a mercenary organization stationed in Ame with a mysterious leader. Even Naruto couldn't get any information about the man. Most spirits avoided Ame, which seemed to have a nest of strong filth, the ghosts that entered Ame never came back out.

It was a bit annoying that he had this dark spot in his information web, but since Ame kept to itself than there wasn't much need to keep information on Ame.

Deidara gaped, "We somehow summon him by speaking of him, yeah?!"

Itachi's blank face stared at them unamused, "Well what else could have happened, 'less he was stalking us."

"It seems I will be able to accomplish two goals in one trip," Itachi commented looking at both of them.

"Two goals?" Deidara questioned narrowing his eyes.

"You are being recruited into Akatsuki," Itachi spoke glancing at Deidara, "and I am after Naruto-kun."

"I don't want to join your cult or whatever it is," Deidara spat with a glare.

"Why are you after me?" Naruto questioned a split second after.

"That is none of your concern, both of you will come."

"I think being taken somewhere is a matter of my concern," Naruto deadpanned crossing his arms and shifting his stance to look more like Madara. He deactivated the gravity seal, which had replaced his weights and prepared to fight.

"It seems that you will not come peacefully," Itachi commented and Naruto saw Tobirama appear.

"Don't look into his eyes," Naruto spoke quickly and dodged out of the way as senbon pierced the ground in front of where he had been standing. Glacing to check on Deidara he saw that the bomber had managed to dodge as well.

"Lets hope the old man is still nearby!" Deidara shouted as he threw out a handful of spiders.

The two went back to back, Deidara facing off against whoever threw the sendbon, and Naruto facing against Itachi. Though he made sure to not look into the Uchiha's eyes, though if he did he knew Madara would break him out. It would still be an inconvenience.

"I recognize you, you're Kisame, the tailless bijuu, yeah? But who are you?" Deidara questioned.

"This runt is to be my partner?"

"Who you calling a runt?! You're hunchbacked! And I'm not going to join your stupid cult!"

"We are not a cult," a voice different then the first stated.

"Make this quick, we don't have time for a drawn out fight," Itachi spoke looking at the people behind Naruto.

In a rush Itachi came at him and Naruto dodged again, channeling chakra through his limbs in order to keep up with the former Anbu's movements.

The bombs exploded and the fight was on.

Naruto dodged and threw down some of his smaller bombs and then used a chakra enhanced jump to leap onto Deidara's clay bird which the bomber had made. "Katsu!" The two shouted and exploded the bombs.

oOoOo- Sarutobi's Pov -oOoOo

"You're telling me you encountered Itachi Uchiha, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Sasori of the Red Sands."

The blond shrugged, "Yeah? Apparently they were just there to keep an eye on Deidara, but after the argument with Onoki they thought Deidara would be a lot more dissatisfied and would be willing to join them."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, "Go ahead and continue."

"Right, well after a minute or so of us raining bombs down on the while dodging jutsu's they managed to land a lucky hit…"

oOoOo- Naruto's Pov -oOoOo

"Jump ship!" Deidara shouted.

Naruto leapt off of the bird and winced as it exploded a second later and the heat brushed across his skin.

"Let's split, I'll fight Itachi," Naruto said to Deidara as they landed on the ground, "Can you handle fighting against the other two?"

Deidara frowned, "I can hold them off for a little while, how long do you think you can fight against Itachi?"

"I have a few tricks I can use," Naruto answered with a smirk.

Deidara nodded and the two split apart before the Akatsuki members could reach them, Naruto in the direction of Itachi and Deidara went towards the Kisame and the third person.

Naruto stared at Itachi's chest, avoiding his red eyes. In a blur Itachi dashed towards him and Naruto raised an arm to block, falling into his taijutsu style. He knew from experience that he wasn't able to attack against a more skilled opponent, but he could block. If he got an opportunity he needed to turn this into a ninjutsu battle.

He winced as his arms and legs took the punches he was unable to dodge. Kunai were blocked with matching kunai. Shuriken stopped with shuriken.

It was still a losing battle though, as the seconds dragged into a minute he became more bruised, and scratches started to appear on his skin as a few kunai managed to hit him.

Finally though he managed to get some distance, "Use the jutsu I taught you," Madara advised.

Naruto didn't respond except to take a deep breath and form the tiger seal, sacrificing a bit of strength in order to make it one handed so Itachi could not copy it. _Katon: Great Fire Destruction._ Breathing out he unleashed a stream of intense flames that rushed out towards Itachi.

A large area in front of him was covered in flames and smoke as the fire slowly extinguished with no fuel to keep it going.

Katon: Great Fire Destruction was the precursor to Madara's Majestic Flame Destroyer. Naruto had just started to learn the jutsu before the trip to Wave. He was nowhere near proficient in it and so the stream was small compared to what it should be.

Itachi's answer was a Great Fireball and Naruto used Hiding like a Mole technique in order to escape the flames.

Making a few Clay and Earth Bunshins he and the others burst out.

Explosions rang in the backdrop a constant symphony of bangs and booms, his only cue that Deidara was still alive.

His clones went to attack Itachi who seemed unfazed by the earlier fire attack. Concentrating Naruto made the bird hand sign and made several large spikes protrude from the ground. Itachi dodged and closed the distance kicking Naruto back a good ten feet or so.

He climbed back to his feet and saw that Deidara was a hundred yards away.

"I can't leave the two of you alone can I?" Onoki grumbled as he appeared in the middle of the two fights.

The three members of Akatsuki grouped back together each with various minor wounds as they eyed the three of them as Naruto and Deidara quickly went towards Onoki. Naruto and Deidara were wounded as much as them, but Onoki was uninjured and unspent.

"We should retreat for now," Itachi spoke.

"Agreed," The hunchback figure said.

"Tch, I think we can take on the old geezer and the two brats," Kisame said with a grin as he hoisted his sword over his shoulder.

"Not without undue risk, we have gathered valuable data that Leader-sama will wish to hear."

With that the three Akatsuki members vanished in puffs of smoke.

oOoOo- Sarutobi's Pov -oOoOo

"I see… this is worrying… what purpose does this Akatsuki serve? What did they want with you?"

"I don't know…" Naruto answered frowning

He sighed, after the incident he decided to see if he could use this to his advantage and have Itachi spy on the Akatsuki, but the boy left his office without answering. Granted it was shortly after Naruto and Fugaku had left. Itachi had been silent after reporting.

Sarutobi had never gotten a single report from Itachi, there was no sign that the boy had given them any information. He hoped that Itachi was still loyal, and was just unable to make reports. It was more comforting thought then the idea of him going truly rouge.

It was plausible that Itachi was unable to make any sort of report, even Naruto couldn't learn anything from Ame…

"Say old man, what are you going to do about the chunin exams?"

Sarutobi sighed, "They will go on, as you know I have been preparing Konoha for the upcoming invasion. For now we will continue going as if unaware of what Orochimaru is planning. I have received letters from the other villages saying what amount of teams they are sending. The numbers from Iwa is larger than previous times we hosted it, but that is due to the bettering of our villages relationship due to your Janken tournaments."

Naruto pouted, "I still can't believe they spilled the secret, how are they ever going to be good ninja if they can't keep secrets."

He smiled, "I could argue that they were being good shinobi by informing me."

Naruto crossed his arms a scowl crossing his face.

"Kumo has also informed us that their Jinchuuriki is coming as a sensei of a team of genin, they are of course informing us out of good will. A-dono also made a not that B was badgering him because B wanted to meet with you again."

Naruto's face was confused for a moment, "B?"

After a moment the confusion cleared, "Oh yeah! The eight tails jinchuuriki, I nearly forgot about him, and that I was supposed to return to Kumo when I was 13 to get further training."

"Wait closer to summer before you go to Kumo," Sarutobi said with a sigh.

"Alright!" Naruto agreed.

"Kiri is only sending a few teams as Mei-dono said they were trying to rebuild Kiri, she did seem fairly surprised though to receive the letter, or that is what she mentioned in her return letter. Suna though is sending in a larger amount of teams and have given no reason as to why."

"Well Orochimaru did try and get the Kazekage to agree, though he said no last I heard. Maybe he changed his mind?"

"Maybe, I wouldn't put foul play past my former student though."

The spymaster and Hokage continued discussing the upcoming chunin exams far into the night, figuring out various protective measures and counter attacks to what the believed that Orochimaru would be doing.

* * *

 **A/n: Gosutoai is one year old today, and look just how far this story has come! But that's not the only birthday, my friend and fellow writer** **Esellyn is also having a birthday, so I would like to dedicate this chapter to them. Esellyn has been a great friend and has helped me with several scenes in this story! Go check out Esellyn's works for some cool Naruto stuff. Anyways I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are enjoying the build up to the chunin exams, prepare for laughs and tears for what is coming up soon!**


	43. Chapter 43

oOoOo- Kakashi's Pov -oOoOo

He looked at his three students, from the not really a genin Naruto, to the civilian girl Sakura, to the rookie of the year Sasuke Uchiha. It was not a good team combination, at first it seemed like it might be possible, but that was before Sasuke learned of the skill gap between him and Naruto.

When Sasuke though Naruto was below him, he was fine with working with the boy, but now that he has been proven wrong and humiliated he is always angry at Naruto and refuses to work with the boy.

Sakura on the other hand was getting better, as proven when they had made their way back from Iwa and she had asked Naruto for his thoughts on what she should do. Kurenai had come to him last night saying that Sakura had asked her about genjutsu's.

While Sakura had the chakra control for the art of illusions, she didn't have the strongest imagination for it and so Kurenai had told her she would have more strength in the iryojutsu department.

Naruto of course was strong due to the Anbu training he had to go through, as well as the fact he had legends such as Hashirama and Madara to teach him. He really was only lacking actually combat experience. Now that he was going on missions he was becoming a lot stronger.

He eyed the three genin, from Sasuke who was glaring at him and refusing to listen to Naruto, to Sakura who was trying her best, and finally Naruto who was trying to get Sasuke to follow his orders. He had taken a page out of Minato-sensei's book and tied the three together in such a way that they had to work together in order to escape.

He, Obito, and Rin had managed to escape after they realized working together started to loosen the ropes. Naruto had realized it a few minutes into it and had told the other two. Sakura had followed his instructions, but Sasuke refused to cooperate.

"After you escape from the ropes you may have free time for the rest of the day," Kakashi informed them, pretending to be reading Icha Icha. He disappeared and hid himself in a tree, only a moment later Naruto glanced at him. Kakashi just gave a shrug in response and an eye-grin.

After another ten minutes he saw Naruto huff shooting him an annoyed look, Kakashi sighed, 'Go ahead and escape.'

Naruto grinned at him and then substituted out of the ropes. The ropes of course fell due to Naruto being gone and Sakura seemed to shake her head. Sasuke was of course glaring, maybe Kakashi should talk with Fugaku and see if the boy's father could help with the boys attitude.

Kakashi started to follow his female student as she went through Konoha. He saw her go into the Hospital and about an hour later she walked back out with some books in her hand as she went home. It looks like she would be learning iryojutsu, having a team medic would definitely be useful.

After he saw her settle in he went to look for Naruto, he knew the boy would know he was watching him, but that was okay. It wasn't fair though, it never failed to make Kakashi paranoid whenever he thought about the invisible spirits that were around him.

It also was cruel that Obito was still alive. Kakashi shook his head as he recalled Naruto telling him about that, how Madara had been manipulated and in turn manipulated Obito. There was nothing he could do though, not until he could find Obito.

He found Naruto with Shino and Hinata, the three of them were walking together around a lake with fishing poles, soon they stopped and started to cast their lines. Well Hinata and Shino were. Naruto walked a little further away and started to cast fireballs at the lake an grabbed the fish that floated to the top dead from being boiled alive.

'You're right Madara! This is the best way to fish,' Naruto signed.

Kakashi facepalmed. Of course Madara had something to do with Naruto casting fireballs. He continued watching as Naruto signed, apparently taking Madara's side against Tobirama, who was scolding Naruto. Hashirama was laughing at the situation if Naruto's pouting and 'stop laughing Hashi-chan!' hand signs were anything to go by.

Eventually Hinata and Shino started to scold Naruto, saying that the lake had gone down a few inches due to him and if he kept going he was going to evaporate the entire lake. Naruto's expression seemed to be caught between guilty and smug. Kakashi shook his head at the boy an amused smile tugging at his lips.

He had a feeling that Madara was encouraging Naruto to destroy the lake while Tobirama would be the one trying to stop him. With Shino and Hinata joining into the fight, unknowingly on Tobirama's side the scale seemed to tip into the Nidaime's favor.

"Fine! I'll fix the lake!" Naruto finally shouted throwing his hands up as he pouted.

"I am horrible at water jutsu's," Naruto moaned as he formed hand signs and spat out a stream of water. It took a good half hour for the boy to raise the lake water back up to where it had been.

While he was doing that Shino had pulled out some hot chocolate and was treating Hinata to the drink, the two sat next to each other as they watched Naruto struggle to refill the lake. Kakashi grinned and decided to go check in on his final student, but first a quick stop to give a gift to a fellow shinobi.

(That night when Shino laid on his bed he found a bright orange book under his pillow.)

Kakashi hummed as he went to find Sasuke, after checking the training field and seeing the boy was gone he went to the Uchiha clan compound and found the boy working in the Uchiha training field, an angry scowl on his face. He settled down and watched his student train himself in taijutsu and bukijutsu.

After ten or so minutes Fugaku came up into the tree next to him, "Kakashi-san," The Uchiha clan head greeted.

"Fugaku-sama," he greeted back with a small nod.

"How has Sasuke been with his team?"

"Not good, he refuses to work with Naruto, and as you can see he keeps pushing himself to get better, but he doesn't ask for help," Kakashi responded.

"I have noticed," Fugaku murmured, "He feels weak, he thinks that he should already be a chunin and on his way to becoming an ANBU, simple because Itachi was an ANBU."

Kakashi shook his head, "Sasuke is nothing like Itachi."

The two shared a look, both understanding that simple fact.

"Will you be entering your team into the upcoming chunin exams?"

"Yes, only for Naruto though, he shouldn't be held back just because Sakura and Sasuke aren't ready. I will try and train them up enough that they can make it through the team rounds…"

Fugaku was silent at that, "If Sasuke does make it to the finals I will be putting in a request that he be held back from promotion. I don't want him becoming a chunin until he learns teamwork," Fugaku sighed. "I wish that boy had taken more after Mikoto or I instead of my father."

Kakashi winced, "I remember Minato complaining about him, Senbi wasn't it?"

Fugaku nodded.

"I should inform you that Naruto had a run in with Itachi about a week ago, so far Sasuke hasn't learned of it."

The Uchiha clan head raised an eyebrow, "And Naruto came out unscathed?"

"A few minor cuts and bruises, nothing Kurama couldn't heal. I guess Sasuke was under the impression that Naruto was worn out from the Clay Kyuubi."

"Clay Kyuubi?"

Kakashi shook his head, "Those two boys were messing around and things got out of hand from what I hear. On another note, Iwa now has a new lake named Kyuubi's Pissing Ground."

Fugaku's mouth fell open, "The Tsuchikage actually named the lake that?"

Kakashi snickered, "Yep, I hear that Kurama is really smug about that."

"That fox manages to cause all sorts of mischief," Fugaku replied with a sigh.

"I can't believe Naruto let him wander around alone."

"I hate to admit it, but that fox has been somewhat useful. Since he manages to hide himself he manages to see a few crimes with no one knowing and he reports them to me."

Kakashi shook his head, "I'm surprised by how… non murderous… the fox is."

"Turns out he only tried to attack Konoha due to some Uchiha controlling him."

Kakashi grimaced, "I know."

The two fell silent as they continued to watch Sasuke train. After another ten minutes later Kakashi left and went back into Konoha main. Not really knowing where to go he found himself in front of the memorial stone. Ever since he learned Obito was still alive, he found himself coming here less often. He stared at the names on the stone for a few minutes, "You would be proud of Naruto… he's grown so strong…" He murmured with a small smile.

With that he turned and walked away.

He went home and checked on his groceries, throwing out the rest of his spoiled milk. After that he went outside of Konoha and summoned his pack and took them for a walk, just enjoying spending time with them. Perhaps he should introduce his pack to his students, see how they react. Though they may have seen them on the wave mission. But, that wasn't a proper introduction.

"My Eternal Rival!" Gai shouted.

Kakashi sighed and looked at the green Jounin, who had a miniature version next to himself, "Hello Gai, Mini-Gai."

"Yosh my name is Lee!" The Mini-Gai shouted with a grin.

Kakashi just nodded, "Right, like I said, Mini-Gai."

"Curse your hip and cool attitude. I challenge you Kakashi!"

Kakashi just gave an eye-grin as he looked up from his book, "Hm, did you say something?"

Gai face planted into the ground.

"How about my student vs yours in a match of janken," Kakashi offered with a grin.

"A most youthful challenge, so long as it's not Naruto-kun."

Mini-Gai tilted his head, "Naruto-kun?"

"The most youthful janken player, he has never lost a hand of janken."

Kakashi just eye-smiled, "I was thinking of Naruto-kun, but if your students would rather face against Sasuke I can understand."

"Yosh! I will beat Naruto-kun in janken!" the miniature shouted and Kakashi and his pack disappeared before the boy could start shouting about rocks on his feet or hands behind his back, or whatever sort of crazily insane punishment the boy would inflict on himself.

He walked back into Konoha after dismissing his pack and looked up at the setting sun, perhaps he should go get some food. Entering into the barbecue restaurant he was flagged down by Asuma and Kurenai.

Kakashi sighed and made his way over to the two of them, "Yo."

"Kakashi," Kurenai greeted.

Asuma just breathed out a bit of smoke. A waiter came up to them and took their order. "How are your students?" Asuma questioned.

"Good, Sakura was at the hospital earlier today. Sasuke is training hard to improve himself, and Naruto was spending time with Shino and Hinata."

"I wish Hokage-sama had placed Naruto with my team instead of Kiba…" Kurenai sighed, "Kiba is a handful and dosen't know when to quit."

"Oh?"

"Yes, he keeps trying to get Hinata to date him, even though she dosen't like him as more than a friend."

Kakashi chuckled, "She dosen't seem to mind Shino's advances though."

"What advances?" Kurenai questioned.

Kakashi blinked, "Earlier today Shino gave Hinata some hot chocolate, and he was sitting really close to her."

Kurenai shook her head, an amused smile on her face, "You've been reading too much Icha Icha, the two of them are just really close friends."

"If you say so…" he replied doubtfully, "What about you Asuma? How is your team?"

Asuma shrugged, "Their good, mostly I just leave them to their clans to teach and just run them through formations to give more practical experience."

"That's good and all for now, but you should give them all something new so that way they can surprise enemies who might be familiar with the way the Ino-Shika-Cho formation works. Especially with the chunin exams coming up here in a month."

Asuma gave a thoughtful nod, "You're right. Anyways, I heard you and your team went with Naruto to his tournament, how was it this year?"

Kakashi grinned and began to tell of Pinkie Pie Sasuke, leaving his two fellow jounin in laughter.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright so here is a new chapter of Gosutaoi, but if you see other updates today, then it is because I am finally posting the edited chapter two, which got so long I split it into two chapters. There is in fact new scenes and something that wasn't shown in the old version has been made clear. Will NaNoWriMo is going on I will be trying to update new chapters of Gosutoai every Tuesday and Friday, and edited chapters will be posted whenever I get them rewritten. That is my goal anyways, we shall see if I'm** **successful** **or not.**


	44. Chapter 44

oOoOo- Naruto's Pov -oOoOo

"Only a few weeks left till the chunin exams," Naruto said with a frown as he stared at the Hiraishin seal he was working on, he nearly had it complete after spending the last couple of weeks working on it almost non stop.

It hadn't been a priority before, but now it was, especially since his shoulder now had a new seal on it from where Tobirama's Hiraishin and the storage seal had combined. An entire new seal and Naruto wasn't sure what it would do.

He wasn't willing to test it either without some sort of idea. Tobirama paced behind him his hands clasped behind his back and he was rambling about the hiraishin seal. Hashirama had a glazed eye look and Madara was taking notes. How the man made a ghostly writing pad was a mystery.

Now if only he could connect all of the individual seals of the hiraishin tag he would be done. He shifted the way the seals were layered with a frown, he knew that the chakra location seal and the blood seal should be on top. At the very bottom would be the time seal, with the dimensional seal on top of it. He needed to figure out the order of the middle section though, the comfort seal would best be the top… then… the transport seal and under it should probably be the assembly seal and then the disassembling seal.

So the order from top to bottom would be chakra location seal, blood connector seal, comfort seal, the transport seal, the assembly seal, the disassembly seal, the dimensional seal, and then the time seal. That would layer the seals from the more common seals, to the advance ones. Since the seals were out of order he had to link them together so that the seals would function in the right order, he didn't want to try and do the assembling before disassembling.

Of course each seal was layered with 5-10 security seals and fake layers with even more security seals were incorporated, which made the 8 real layers hidden like needles in a haystack. There was about 100 layers total. Of course one of the seals was a self destruct seal that would destroy the entire seal if an enemies chakra tried to unravel the seals.

After drawing the seals he carefully looked over the finished seal. He had layered and connected it so that it looked like the Uzumaki swirl. Tobirama didn't have a particular design for his, and his father had his seal designed to look like the kanji endurance, love, of, sword. He didn't particularly understand why his father picked those kanji, after all he used kunai, not a sword.

Tobirama saw Naruto stare at the seal and stoped his rambling as he came over and started to look over it, after a few minutes he nodded. "It looks good. Now you need to test it, if the test proves successful then…" He trailed off and blinked as he saw Madara who was putting away his notepad. "You need to memorize the seal perfectly," Tobirama finished.

"Were you… taking notes?" Tobirama questioned as he turned to Madara.

Madara crossed his arms and scowled, "Yes."

"Why?" Tobirama asked puzzled.

"Because it was interesting, why else?"

"You mean you actually understood what I was talking about?"

"...Yes. Some of it, I do dabble in seals."

"Madara has helped me before when I got stuck," Naruto spoke up and glanced around the room to see that Hashirama was starting to tune back in. He gathered up his seal and prepared to go find Kakashi so he could test the seal.

"Why have you never mentioned this before?" Tobirama demanded.

"It never came up."

"Get over here and tell me what you think of this seal then," Tobirama commanded pulling out his own notepad. Madara rolled his eyes but walked over and stared at the seal for a minute.

"Is that a seal allowing a user to open a portal to an alternate dimension?" He questioned in stunned disbelief.

Tobirama smirked, "It would be if I had ever gotten it to work. Can you see why it doesn't work?"

Madara frowned and grabbed the notepad from Tobirama. Hashirama gaped, "Please tell me I heard that wrong."

"You heard them right," Naruto spoke with a sweatdrop as Madara and Tobirama started discussing the seal together.

"Well… they are only spirits… so it should be fine," Hashirama murmured as Madara chuckled a bit and Tobirama seemed smug. Naruto just gave a nod and decided to ignore the two spirits. That was the best course of action here. Right? Pft, who was he kidding, getting far away was probably safer. Luckily, such a seal would be difficult to create, so hopefully Madara and Tobirama were not able to get it working.

He and Hashirama left the two to discuss the seal as Naruto went to find Jiraiya so he could test to see if the Hiraishin worked. He could not do test the seal with the ghosts because he needed someone else in case the seal didn't work. Jiraiya would be able to hopefully fix him if it went badly.

Badly meaning he was de-atomized and not re-atomized.

Or lost in another dimension.

Or frozen in time.

He was sure he got it right though. Tobirama also gave it his approval, so nothing too bad should happen. "Jiraiya! You here?"

"Yeah! What do you need?" Jiraiya's voice called out.

"I'm ready to test the Hiraishin seal."

"Alright, come on down to the basement!"

Naruto made his way down to the basement, and saw Jiraiya was working on a seal, Naruto knew he was working on the locatededo tensei, trying to figure how to weaken it or release the edo tensei after they were summoned.

Jiraiya nodded and stood up, "You ready?"

Naruto nodded.

"Alright place the seal down and do it then."

So he placed the seal down and then walked to the other side of the room. He felt the slight flare on the edge of his sense and focused on the seal, an instant later he was on the other side of the room. Naruto looked down at his hands and saw that he still looked intact.

Jiraiya started to circle around him and ask questions, "How do you feel? Is everything working?" Those sort of things.

After he confirmed everything was still good Jiraiya had him use the seal another few times to make sure he could use it properly and then gave it his thumbs up of approval. So he returned back to his room where Tobirama and Madara were still discussing seals.

The rest of the afternoon he spent memorizing the seal and practicing the quick application of it via chakra and scrapping the failed papers that proved he still needed to work on memorizing the seal. By the time he went to bed he was consistently making the seal.

In the morning, he had to rememorize some of the seal as he had forgotten it, he would have just used his sharingan, but Tobirama had scolded him, saying that he didn't need to cheat by using the sharingan. Especially since Tobirama had mainly developed the Hiraishin to counter the sharingan.

So he spent another hour working on memorizing the seal making sure he had it right. After he finally rememorized he placed a storage seal on top of his hiraishin tag and watched it. He saw how the storage tag reacted with the dimensional seal, bleeding through all of the layers and connecting with the seal.

Naruto frowned and looked at his shoulder, staring at the way Tobirama's hiraishin interacted with the storage seal and saw the same sort of bleed through, how the storage seal reached through the layers to connect with the dimensional seal.

Which was very interesting, since storage seals were their own dimension, but people were unable to enter them without going into stasis. The dimension seal used by Hiraishin was where the molecules were transported through before reassembled at the end location of where the tag was located.

The travel seemed instantaneous to him due to being nothing but a pile of molecules and for other people it seemed instantaneous due to the time seal. He and Jiraiya set out through Konoha, marking spots for quick traveling, Jiraiya making sure that the seals weren't too obvious and in good locations.

The two of them even learned a couple old secret tunnels long forgotten about via Hashirama who pointed them out. By the early evening they finished marking the various hiraishin spots.

Jiraiya grinned, "Let's gets ramen, my treat."

"Sure!" Naruto said with a grin, always happy to get some ramen, especially if he didn't have to pay for it. The two walked to Ichiraku's. Naruto easily ordered five bowls to start with. "So, how has your new story been doing?"

"Pink Humiliation has been doing great, seems that people really liked the story."

Naruto snickered, "The other day I was with my team, and Sasuke saw Kakashi reading the book and the name of it and he was pissed. Especially once he read it and saw that it was actually based off of him."

"People are wanting to see a sequel, got any ideas?"

"Hm…" Naruto gave a thoughtful hum.

"What about that annoying shark song the kids have been singing in the street?" Hashirama suggested.

So Naruto relayed that to Jiraiya who gave a thoughtful nod and pulled out a notebook, scribbling down, 'Humiliation: Shark edition.'

"I swear, you are a gold mine for new stories kid," Jiraiya said with a grin.

"So, you're no longer working on Icha Icha?"

"I still occasionally write for it, but this next book should tie up the series and bring it to an end," Jiraiya answered.

Hashirama wrinkled his nose, "I still can't believe that smut actually had plot."

"I can't believe Dara-chan convinced you to read it," Naruto responded to Hashirama. Teuchi and Ayame already knew about the spirits, back when he was younger he hadn't been so good at keeping the secret and so they had ended up learning about his secret.

Hashirama just sighed, "He had help from Tobirama."

"Really?"

"Yes, he said that the book had included stuff he had never seen before," Hashirama groaned out burying his head in his hands.

"Eh? Why is that important?"

Hashirama gave a snort, "He may not seem like it, but my brother was a playboy. Is a playboy. I didn't even know ghosts could interact in that manner…" He trailed off with a shake of his head.

Naruto sweatdropped, "I think I am moving away from that."

"What did he say?"

"That Tobirama is a playboy, and that ghosts can play around."

"Really? The Nidaime… hmmm," Jiraiya mused a thoughtful look crossing his face.

Hashirama just despaired.

"So, once you make it past the second round, I will train you in toad summoning, it will be a really useful skill."

"No," Hashirama said, becoming serious instantly.

"No?" Naruto questioned looking at the spirit.

"I will be teaching you sage mode, I have already discussed this with Madara and Tobirama and they agreed this was the best training for you to receive before the invasion."

So Naruto looked at Jiraiya and said, "Hashi-chan has decided to teach me sage mode during that time."

"Oh that's perfect, the toads can help with that!"

Hashirama frowned, "The toads can help?" Naruto parroted the question to Jiraiya.

"Yes, they taught me sage mode, well… partial sage mode, I never managed to fully complete it like Minato did."

"Demonstrate please," the spirit requested curious.

Jiraiya grimaced, "Sure, but I have to warn you that I am horrible at it."

So they went to a training field and Jiraiya summoned two toads called Ma and Pa in order to enter sage mode. As soon as they started to gather nature chakra Hashirama was horrified. "No! Just no! How can you even think of pulling in Nature chakra like that?!"

When Jiraiya had finished and grew a bulbous nose with warts Hashirama was beyond horrified and was becoming furious. "How could you be so stupid?! Usuing sage mode like that is an idiotic idea and you are damaging both yourself and the chakra around you! Even the toads are pulling the chakra wrong! Is this how they instructed you? I refuse to let them train Naruto in any form of Sage Mode, obviously they don't know what they are doing," Hashirama shouted.

Dutifully Naruto mimicked him and Jiraiya stared in shock. The two toads on his shoulders were pretty displeased as well at 'The young whelpling who thinks he knows the sage arts.'

Jiraiya dismissed them, telling them he would talk with them later. "Don't think you are off the hook! You will be joining Naruto in learning Sage mode, I won't stand for you desecrating nature like that again."

"Yes Shodai-sama," Jiraiya said cowed into submission via Naruto's mimicking.

"Good, now let's return to the house and finish preparing for the chunin exams."

With that the group returned to the house. "We shall never speak of this again," They heard Tobirama declare as they entered.

"Agreed."

"Never speak of what again?" Hashirama questioned as they entered.

"Nothing," The two quickly said, both looking incredibly guilty.

"What did you do?" Naruto questioned.

"Nothing that we didn't fix," Madara reassured. Despite badgering the duo for the rest of the night they refused to answer what they had been talking about. Naruto figured it hadn't been anything to bad if they weren't worrying about it.

* * *

 **A/n: Welcome to the end of Part Two. The next part is them preparing for chunin exams and taking the exams. Things will start becoming a bit more serious and I will now be starting to involve other characters a bit more. Don't worry though, I still have several** **humorous and crazy** **things planned. I blame the characters, they just won't do normal stuff. Thank you guys for sticking with this story so far, and I hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters!**


	45. Chapter 45: Act Three

oOoOo - Hiruzen -oOoOo

He looked out at the jounin teachers in front of him. Four teachers in particular he had high hopes for their teams being successful in the upcoming events. This at the moment was a mere formality, the paperwork was already filled by the teachers and would be submitted at the end.

As the Hokage he needed to make the exams look normal, or the plan to throw off Orochimaru would be ruined. The only two things his former student wanted was to destroy Konoha, and to get Sasuke for his eyes.

He couldn't protect the boy directly without giving away the fact they knew Orochimaru's plans. Hiruzen would just have to rely on Naruto distracting his former student and hopefully being able to delay Orochimaru enough for the nearby ANBU to respond.

"As you know the chunin exams will be starting in a little over two weeks. Now let us start with the rookie teams," He commanded before giving a nod to his son, "Asuma."

"I, Asuma Sarutobi, submit my students, Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akamichi, and Shikamaru Nara, to participate in the upcoming exams," Asuma stated, drawing some murmuring from the other teachers.

"A rookie team competing?" They whispered to each other, confused as such a thing was almost unheard of, teachers generally prefered to wait a year, like Gai did.

Asuma was unaware of the invasion, and Hiruzen sighed, if he had informed his son then he would have kept his team out. Perhaps keeping the rookie teams out would be better, but Orochimaru was clearly expecting Sasuke to participate. Which if he was going to have one team participate then the other two should participate as well.

"I, Kurenai Yuhi, submit my students, Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka, to participate in the upcoming exams," Kurenai spoke a small smile on her face as she thought of her newest team. He was glad it was working out for her better than her old student, Yakumo Kurama, it was such a shame what happened to that girl… perhaps he should have Jiraiya look into her situation after the chunin exams were over.

Like Asuma, Kurenai was unaware of the invasion for now. The two of them would be informed after the first part of the exams had begun and it was too late for them to remove their students. More murmurs arose, whispering about the two rookie teams, most of the other teachers were now looking expectantly at Kakashi.

Who was reading a pink book. Hiruzen gave a small cough and Kakashi looked up, blinking, "I submit my team."

Hiruzen knew Kakashi was just acting like his care-free persona to throw off any suspicion the other jounin might have, but it was still irritating. He gave a small glare to Kakashi who gave an eye-smile, "I, Kakashi Hatake, submit my students, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki, to participate in the upcoming exams."

Kakashi due to his close relationship with Naruto knew of the invasion, he knew his team would be directly in danger, but he also realized that if they wanted a chance to catch Orochimaru then they needed to offer up Sasuke as bait.

"Wait a minute!" Iruka, a chunin who taught the class of rookies protested.

"What is it?"

"Hokage-sama, please let me say one thing," Iruka paused only long enough to receive a nod from him before continuing, "this may be presumptuous, but as for the nine names just given I was in charge of them during the academy. Admittedly they were all students with ability but it is to soon! They shouldn't be tested until they had more experience."

"I became a chunin when I was six years younger than Naruto is now," Kakashi said turning to the chunin.

"Naruto is different than you! Do you want to crush Naruto, who was the last of his class?"

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed, "Do not presume to know _my_ students better than I do. Especially Naruto. He is easily the strongest of the rookies."

"That is just it though, they are rookies, new to the shinobi ways!"

He watched as Kakashi released a small amount of killing intent, "They know more than enough to qualify for the chunin exams."

"They only graduated a few months ago!"

"Enough," Hiruzen finally spoke up stopping the two shinobi from furthering their argument. "The rookie teams will be ready in time, while some may not pass they will learn and grow stronger from this."

Iruka frowned but bowed his head in acceptance.

"Let us continue on."

"I, Gai Maito, submit my students, Tenten, Lee Rock, and Neji Hyuuga, to participate in the upcoming exams," Gai said giving a grin and a thumbs up. Gai was one of the few jounins aware of the invasion. Despite being loud and boisterous the man knew how to keep a secret and was one of his most loyal shinobi.

He listened as other Jounin submitted their teams, and wondered which of the teams would be able to withstand Ibiki's mindgames. So many Shinobi were slated to show up, twice as many teams as normal. Hundreds of teams would show up, and while a good half of them would be from Konoha, the other half was made up primarily of teams from the other main villages. Only about five of the hundred or so teams were actually from minor villages.

Usually the makeup of the exams was 75% of the teams would be from the hosting village. He caught the eyes of Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma and motioned for them to stay behind.

The three instructors did, standing at attention, "As I mentioned earlier to Iruka, the students will be ready in time. To do this you will each trade your teams for a week for the next two weeks. In these two weeks you will train the other students and look for ways in which they can improve their skills. At the end of these two weeks we will gather them all here and give them their evaluation and recommendations for what they should train themselves in by the end."

Kurenai, Asuma, and Kakashi all nodded, "I understand Hokage-sama."

"Good, inform your teams today and you will begin the training tomorrow."

The three jounin vanished in a small swirl of leaves, Kakashi moving first prompting the other two jounin to follow his example. Annoying Hiruzen as the leaves sat on the ground, they couldn't bother to walk out, they had to shunshin.

oOoOo- Kakashi -oOoOo

He shunshined out of the room inwardly laughing as he imagined the Hokage's reaction, it was the little things that were always the best. Still at least he didn't leave via the window like Jiraiya tended to do.

Kurenai and Asuma appeared next to him a moment later as he appeared at the memorial stone. "I will take Kurenai's team first, and Asuma's team the second week."

"Which means I get Asuma's team first."

"And I get Kakashi's team," Asuma said grinning, "I can't wait to see how Naruto is doing."

"Let's go inform our teams then," Kurenai spoke.

Kakashi watched as Asuma and Kurenai vanished in swirls of leaves. He turned after a moment and left to go to Jiraiya and Naruto's house. He knocked on the door, "Who is it?" Jiraiya called.

"It's me," The door opened and Kakashi continued, "I'm calling a team meeting, have Naruto grab Sakura please."

"Alright, I'll let him know."

Kakashi left off to the Uchiha district and found Sasuke training by himself, even though he told them to take the rest of the day off earlier before he was called by the Hokage.

So he grabbed the boy scolding him as he brought the boy to the team meeting spot and saw Naruto and Sakura waiting for him.

"Good, all of you are here, tomorrow we will be starting something special," Kakashi started and sighed when he saw the amused glint in Naruto's eyes, purposely revealing he already knew what was going on. "You will be trained for the next two weeks by Asuma and Kurenai. Asuma will work with you for one week, and after that you will be working with Kurenai."

"Eh? Why are we training with the other sensei's? Won't they be working with their own teams?" Sakura questioned.

"We are doing a team swap," Kakashi answered waving a hand dismissively.

"But why?" Sakura pressed.

"It's likely so the teachers can get a fresh perspective and to see if another teacher can determine if a student should learn something that their original teacher doesn't think about."

Sasuke gave a scoff, "Kakashi is the most experienced jounin between the three, what would the others be able to offer?"

"Kurenai is the genjutsu mistress of Konoha. She is hailed to be the best at non doujutsu genjutsus," Naruto offered.

"Which I don't need to learn since I have my Sharingan."

"She is also a skilled tracker, being able to easily spot hidden signs of a shinobi's presence. It's why she is the Sensei of Hinata, Shino, and Kiba. They are to make a tracker squad. Because Kurenai often works with the T&I department she is best friends with Anko Mitarishi and is on a friendly acquaintance with Ibiki," he brought up to his student, disliking that Sasuke seemed to be dismissing Kurenai.

Sasuke didn't look impressed.

"What about Asuma?" Sakura questioned looking interested.

"Asuma Sarutobi is one of Sandaime-sama's sons. He is a wind and fire user, and was once a member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja's, which was created by the Daimyo as a protection unit. Eventually the group was disbanded and Asuma returned to Konoha. He is an extremely skilled Elemental jutsu user."

At least Sasuke seem somewhat interested in Asuma.

Sakura seemed hesitant, but curious.

Naruto of course was interested, but Kakashi knew that his fellow jounin wouldn't be able to point out anything new that the boy didn't already know. Genjutsu was ill suited for Naruto. Asuma would probably be able to give Naruto some wind tips, but then again maybe not.

It just depended on how skilled Madara was with wind jutsu's, which the Uchiha apparently had known. Kakashi just shook his head, Naruto's gift to see spirit's was so unfair.

oOoOo- Kurenai -oOoOo

She stared at her students as they sat in front of her, they had been practicing taijutsu, just as she had told them to when she had been summoned. "Kakashi, Asuma, and I have agreed to do a special training method for the next couple of weeks."

Her three students looked up interested. "Special training?" Kiba questioned leaping up.

"Yes, we will be switching teams, starting tomorrow you will spend a week with Kakashi, and then a week with Asuma. They will be going over your skills and training you in what they think is best."

"This sounds beneficial, why? Because we will be getting critique from other strong jounins," Shino spoke nodding in approval.

"Ya! We can show off how awesome we are to the other sensei's!" Kiba shouted and Akamaru gave a bark in agreement.

Hinata just gave a small smile, "It seems like a good idea," she added quietly.

Kurenai smiled, glad her team was so accepting of the training they would be going through. "Good to see you so eager, the three teams will be meeting at the memorial stone tomorrow."

oOoOo- Asuma -oOoOo

Asuma breathed out a cloud of smoke and looked at his students, he had just told them about the team swap and was now seeing how they would react. It was sad how predictable they were.

Shikamaru gave his standard troublesome.

Choji just looked interested and eat his chips.

Ino frowned and seemed disinterested, saying that the other two jounins weren't worth her time, and that she was fine sticking with her clan techniques.

Unfortunately that seemed a sentiment that his students seemed to follow all too much. While their clan techniques were a good starting point, they really needed to branch out a bit more. Unfortunately none of them were suited to wind or fire. They didn't even bother asking for help with learning the elements they do have.

Ino had water, and both Shikamaru and Choji had earth. He offered to teach them how to start their elemental training, but they said they wanted to work on their clan techniques.

Asuma drew in another lungful of smoke and gave a long breath out. Hopefully the other jounin would be able to motivate his team to improve themselves beyond their clan techniques.

* * *

 **A/n: Hope you enjoyed, I know a lot of you are wanting to know what went down between Madara and Tobirama, don't worry, all will be revealed... eventually. But Now it is the final preparations for the chunin exams! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Act Three.**


	46. Chapter 46

oOoOo- Kakashi -oOoOo

He sighed as he got up and made his way over to the memorial stone where the three teams were gathering, he saw that Naruto and Sakura stared at the stone in respectful silence for a minute, while Sasuke ignored it. At least two of his students knew the importance of honouring fallen comrades.

Though it was a given that Naruto would have a great respect for the dead. After all they often treated him better than the living did. He frowned as he watched Asuma's team, Shikamaru leaned against a tree and stared at the sky, Choji ate his chips out of one of Naruto's food scrolls, and Ino was fawning over Sasuke earing Sakura's ire.

Kakashi sighed, and he had been doing so good on working on Sakura's fangirl tendencies. His eye roamed over the training field and he saw Hinata and Shino make their way over to Naruto and start chatting with him quietly.

Kiba didn't look happy at his teammates leaving him though. He watched as the boy stewed in silence before shouting out at Naruto, calling him a 'dumbass dead last.' Kakashi scowled, but he noted Naruto's vaguely amused expression.

"Don't insult Naruto, cha! He is way stronger than you mutt!" Sakura shouted, surprising the others that she came to Naruto's defense.

"Oh? Does this mean you're interested in the idiot?" Ino questioned flipping her hair.

"As if! He's my teammate, and Sensei has always told us that those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum."

Kakashi beamed proudly and decided he needed to reward Sakura. He looked to his fellow jounin who were also taking the time to observe the kids and they nodded.

The three shunshined down.

The students became quite as they looked at them. "Kakashi's team, with me," Asuma called out and left, his three students following after the man.

"Asuma's team," Kurenai called out, smiling as the three students followed her.

"So, you're Kurenai's brats," Kakashi stated looking at the three kids. "Today… you will be doing the bell test," He informed them holding up two bells as he gave an eye-grin.

"Bell test?" Kiba questioned.

"Yes, the person who doesn't get a bell will be forced to play the role of Ahiruke in Pink Humiliation," Kakashi gave an eye grin and ignored how the sky darkened around him. Hmm, he seemed to be feeling particularly vindictive today. How odd.

The three genin all paled and looked at the bells nervously. "Well, you have until the timer goes off," Kakashi said setting the timer to go off in three hours. The three scattered quickly leaving him all alone in a clearing. He put the bells on his waist and pulled out Jiraiya's book and smiled as he read how Ahiruke was forced to dress like a teenage girl who was obsessed with pink and sing an embarrassing song.

Shino and Hinata attacked him, Shino used his bugs as a distraction with Hinata keeping to his supposed blind spot. It seemed that they worked well together, but where was Kiba? Did they exclude him? Or did Kiba deny working with them?

Ah. There he was. Kakashi substituted with a log as Kiba came barreling out of trees. The three continued to attack him, trying various strategies, but they failed to get the bells. Still at least they were working together.

Of course they should be, if they hadn't by this point he would have been disappointed in Kurenai. Kakashi gave a frown, feeling as if he had somehow managed to compliment Kurenai with that sentence. But, why were his thoughts like that? Kurenai was a fellow jounin and highly skilled, so why would he feel disgust when thinking of her? As if complimenting her was something to be avoided...

His visible eye narrowed, something was wrong, and he needed to figure out just what was going on. Absentmindedly he threw a few kunai at the genin, ignoring their yelps. He should visit Inoichi...

oOoOo- Kurenai -oOoOo

She led Asuma's team to her training field and looked at the three. "How about we start with introducing ourselves, I'll start. My name is Kurenai Yuhi, I like genjutsus, and I dislike those who believe genjutsu is a worthless ninja branch. My dream is to successfully teach my team and watch them become successful ninja."

"My name is Ino Yamanaka, I like Sasuke-kun and my clan techniques. I dislike Forehead-girl. My dream is to win Sasuke-kun's heart and become the head of the Yamanaka clan."

Kurenai showed no reaction to it, but inwardly she frowned. It seemed Ino was a fangirl, but she would have to see if Ino let that stop her from becoming a better ninja. Two types of fangirls existed, the detrimental kind, and the useful kind. The detrimental fangirls let their crushes overtake their training and they became weak and were a liability. The useful kind used their crush as a motivation to get stronger.

"I'm Choji Akimichi, I like chips, and I dislike those who call me fat. My dream is to become a strong clan head."

She gave a nod to him. Decent, had a bit of work ethic if he wanted to be a strong clan head. Did seem like he would be easy to taunt though.

Shikamaru gave a sigh, "Troublesome, I'm Shikamaru Nara, I like cloud gazing, I dislike troublesome stuff, and my dream is to be a completely average ninja, marry a non troublesome woman and have two kids."

Kurenai sweatdropped. Shikamaru seemed to have no work effort, though he did know where he wanted to go in his life, perhaps she should see if she could encourage him to work a bit harder.

"Thank you, now I want to see what you three know, so we shall be having a spar. We began a minute ago," She said giving a smile as she disappeared in a shimmer and the three genin realized that they were tied to a tree.

"Genjutsu, troublesome," Shikamaru stated sighing and giving a small pulse of his chakra, breaking the simple genjutsu.

Kurenai gave a nod as he broke himself free of the genjutsu and then watched as he freed Ino and Choji. She weaved a couple small genjutsus messing with their senses. She watched as they came at her, and stood still as they missed her, being off by a few inches. They looked startled and Shikamaru tried to catch her in a shadow.

She let the genjutsu version of herself continue to distract them as she sat in a tree. The Yamanaka clan heir was disappointing. As a member of the clan that specialized in mind arts she expected the heiress to be able to realize that something was messing with her mind.

Shikamaru took another minute but he did realize that they were under more genjutsus and broke himself out of them. She allowed the genjutsus to fall, even if she could have kept them up. He seemed to have a talent for at least realizing he was in a genjutsu.

Choji blinked as he stopped his ball technique which he had used to try and land a hit on her. The three did have good teamwork, but overall they lacked skills outside of their clans.

"Taijutsu only now," She called out and rushed towards them, startling the three genin as they tried to defend against her quick attacks.

After a few minutes she had the information she needed on their defense and backed away to see what sort of offense they would have.

Ino had a very defensive style, she was meant to get some distance and to stay away, not only that but she always kept within ten feet of Shikamaru.

Shikamaru also was defensive, but he constantly scanned for openings and occasionally made a strike if he thought he could land it.

Choji on the other hand was offensive, relying on Shikamaru and Ino to protect him as he made to attack.

Finally, she called the spar done and told them to do as many laps around the training field as they could. It was time to check their endurance.

oOoOo- Asuma -oOoOo

Asuma stared at the three genin. They stared back. He would be working with Kakashi's students for the next week, and while Naruto might not be so bad, he was not looking forward to the Uchiha kid.

He brought out a shogi board. He looked at the three and then pointed to the pink haired girl, Sakura Haruno if he remembered correctly. "Do you know how to play shogi?" She gave a nod, "Good, you will play against me and answer questions as we play. You have 30 seconds to decide what move to make while answering my questions."

The girl nodded and sat across from him, "Name?" He questioned moving a piece.

"Sakura Haruno," she replied moving a piece.

"Favorite color?"

"Red," she answered.

Back and forth it went and as the game progressed she became more distracted, either by answering the questions or trying to play the game. "Who do you like?" "Who do you hate?" "What do you think of your teammates?" "What is your favorite element?" "What do you want to do?"

It was a barrage of questions, switching between different topics rapidly. The questions only ended when Asuma won the game which lasted about 20 moves, ten from each of them.

"You next," Asuma said point to Sasuke.

"Name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"Favorite Color?"

"Dark blue."

Again Asuma asked questions and Sasuke answered. He managed to last a little longer, making the game last for about 30 moves. Both of the games were short games when the normal shogi game lasted about a 100 moves.

"Alright Naruto, for you we are dropping the time to ten seconds," Asuma stated.

"Okay."

"Name?"

"Naruto," The boy answered with a cheeky grin.

"Favorite color."

"Grey."

"Who is your best friend?"

"Deidara and Shino are both equal to me."

"Least favorite person?"

"Classified," Naruto retorted with a grin, Asuma chuckled.

"What do you think of your teammates?" He questioned making another move in the more rapid pace game.

"Sakura is alright, Sasuke needs to work on his attitude," Naruto replied looking at him as he made his move, seemingly not paying attention to the board.

"Favorite element?"

"Fire, followed by wind."

"What do you want to do?"

"Become Hokage."

"Who inspires you to be a better ninja?"

"The shinobi who came before us."

"How much chakra do _you_ have?"

"I don't know, a lot."

On and on the questions went as they played and Asuma started to ask the first random questions that popped into his head.

"Do you like Unicorns?"

Naruto blinked for a second before shrugging, "No opinion."

"Do you like writing?"

"That's more something my godfather does."

"Favorite genre?"

"Books or Movies?" Naruto questioned back with a grin.

"Books."

"Fictional."

"Movies?"

"Same," Naruto answered a smug smirk stretching across his face as he placed a piece. Asuma rolled his eyes and they continued playing. More questions were asked and answered.

"Inarizushi or Ramen?"

"Both."

"Pick one."

"I like them both equally and will not say otherwise. Checkmate."

Asuma gave a sigh as he looked at the board, "Good job, you beat me in 84 moves."

Naruto just chuckled, "That was a fun match Asuma, it has been awhile since we played."

"And you have gotten better."

"Well I have played against Shikamaru."

Asuma gave a nod and put away the shogi board. "Alright, I have finished my test to see how you three responded to pressure. Now, I shall test your skills when you have different senses taken away. Sasuke you will be blindfolded, Sakura you will be deafened. Naruto you will be blindfolded and deafened."

The three nodded and he handed out the blindfolds and earmuffs. Once they were on he started the fight. Immediately he noticed Naruto turned towards him. Sakura turned to him as well, and Sasuke took a second to locate him from Sakura's speaking.

Yet the main question was how Naruto was able to know where he was… unless… Naruto was a sensor or had training in sensory techniques. Asuma shook his fondly, that brat managed to do the impossible it seemed.

He fought against the three and saw how they fought with their senses taken away. Sasuke had his hearing, but ignored Sakura's advice on what to do, choosing to charge in or use a ninjutsu.

Sakura didn't have her hearing and so couldn't hear Sasuke telling her to be quiet, that he didn't need her help. Naruto seemed to be trying to use both of his teammates moves to actually corner him, but there was no actual cohesiveness between the three. Sasuke ignored his teammates and nearly but Naruto into danger if the boy hadn't gotten away.

Asuma shook his head, wondering if something was wrong with Sasuke mentally, he knew from Kakashi that the man had repeatedly tried to drill in teamwork to the stubborn boy, but nothing seemed to work. Sometimes something did for a few days, but after that the boy returned to normal.

He would have a lot of work ahead of him this week to see if he could improve the three.

 **A/N: Enjoy.**


	47. Chapter 47

oOoOo- Kakashi -oOoOo

He dismissed the three genin he was currently teaching, watching how the collapsed with exhaustion. He needed to see Inoichi, immediately. He knew his thinking was changing, and it was becoming worse the longer he waited. He should have gone to Inoichi at the beginning of the week when he first thought of something as wrong.

Kakashi had never trained team seven as hard as he had trained Kurenai's team, and he was pretty sure Hinata was terrified of him. They had improved a lot though under the week long training session. He even started them on some things they could work on.

Kiba he had found the boy could be silent and so he taught Kiba the hiding like a mole technique and recommended the boy focused more on infiltration. It would definitely be useful, especially with the boy's new technique. Kiba managed to transform into Akamaru when doing the man beast clone technique under pressure. Now he could replicate it for a new technique.

Hinata he had learned was working on a new Hyuga stance, since the earth based stance did not work for her, apparently Hinata had a fire element. He gave her a few ideas for how to improve her stances and weakness she currently had.

Shino surprisingly had water affinity, this was learned when Shino asked him for a water jutsu. So Kakashi taught him the basics for the water wall jutsu.

Kakashi walked away from the genin after summoning three shadow clones to help them home, though another part of his mind argued that leaving them to walk home by themselves would help make them stronger.

He finally made it to the Yamanaka's flower shop and entered, "Hello?"

Inoichi's head popped out from the back door, "Kakashi? What can I do for you today?"

"Well, I think something is affecting my mind."

Inoichi's eyebrow rose up, "That is worrying, I assume you tried dispelling a genjutsu?"

Kakashi gave a nod, feeling insulted that the man thought he would fall prey to something weak like a genjutsu. Kakashi frowned at that, "It appears a lot whenever I see Kurenai, or someone mentions genjutsu, there is a strange hatred of the two."

"Alright, well come on back and I can take a look."

Kakashi followed Inoichi to the back and sat down in the chair offered. "As you know the use of my clan jutsu will put us in your mind. Because of this I may end up seeing secrets that you are privy to, any discovered secrets will not be used against you, and any classified info will be kept guarded in my mind. Knowing that I can learn classified info do you still want to proceed?"

"Yes, these thoughts are becoming more prominent."

"Very well then. _Mind Exploration Jutsu_ ," Inoichi intoned holding a hand seal.

Kakashi looked around as he was pulled into his mind, he saw Inoichi standing next to him also observing his mindscape.

He appeared to be on an island, where they stood was bright and sunny, peaceful and relaxed. But the other half of the small island was dark lighting flashing down and waves crashing against cliff walls.

"Interesting, your mind appears split into two."

Kakashi startled at that, looking inquisitively at Inoichi, "Split into two?"

"Yes, it would seem that someone, or something is intruding upon your mind."

A slow clap rang out, "Bravo, you figured it out."

The two looked at the darker side of the Island as a figure emerged from the shadows, he looked exactly like Kakashi, except his eye had a harder look in it and he didn't exude a carefree aura like Kakashi normally did. The air around him was dark and little bits of lightning came from him.

"Who are you?" Inoichi asked.

"Kakashi Hatake," The man answered his voice taking a mocking tone, as if Inoichi should have figured it out for himself.

"How? You don't act like me," Kakashi questioned the other version of himself.

"Obviously," The other version sneered. Kakashi decided to just refer to the other version of himself as Hatake. "From what I have observed so far we are from different dimensions, in which things have gone differently."

Kakashi gave a frown, trying to recall something Naruto had mentioned in passing the other day. Something to do with seals and Tobirama and Madara… as he remembered he groaned. "Those two idiots."

Both Hatake and Inoichi looked at him. "You know what happened?"

He waved a hand, "I have an idea, leave me with Hatake here and go get Naruto please, he will be able to help since it was a sealing accident that caused this."

Inoichi nodded, "Very well."

Hatake tilted his head, "So your Naruto messes with seals as well?"

"Yes, he does," Kakashi answered with an eye-grin.

Hatake returned it, "Naruto is such a cute little menace. I wonder, what sort of differences exist between our teams…" The dark aura disappeared around his other self as the man seemed to lighten up with Inoichi gone.

Kakashi shrugged, "Why don't you tell me about your team?"

"Alright, I am the Jounin Sensei of Team Seven the second team to ever pass my bell test. At first they were rough, but with training quickly became a cohesive unit that understands teamwork is important. Sasuke Uchiha is our resident water expert," Kakashi raised a questioning eyebrow at this and so Hatake elaborated, "During the massacre Itachi burned down the Uchiha district and this has left Sasuke with a fear of fire. After the wave mission he has also started working on training with the executioner's blade. Sakura Haruno has become our medic and is working under Shizune in the hospital. And Naruto created seals that would allow us to see the dead, and is working on creating a seal to allow us to hear them instead of just writing words. In particular Tobirama has taken to spending time with us, Sasuke in particular has become his apprentice," Hatake informed, but Kakashi couldn't help but think some info was being left off.

"Your Sasuke works with his team?" Kakashi questioned, deciding that it didn't matter if Hatake was keeping some stuff secret.

"Yes, a near death experience helped with that."

Kakashi nodded, "Interesting, well like you I am the Jounin Sensei of Team Seven, but they are the only team to ever pass my bell test. This was mostly due to Naruto being able to manipulate the other two to work together briefly. Sasuke is one of the worst kinds of Uchiha, stuck up and arrogant, very different from his father. Sakura has also take up Iryojutsu, though I am unaware of who she is apprenticed under. Naruto is Konoha's spymaster, as I'm sure you know, though he hasn't made a seal to allow us to see spirits yet."

Hatake blinked, "Konoha's spymaster?"

Kakashi tilted his head, "Yes, did your Naruto not become a spymaster after he started seeing ghosts?"

"My Naruto only developed the seal during the wave mission, before he couldn't see spirits, you make it sound like your Naruto had the ability for a long time."

"He did, ever since he was a toddler, I don't know what happened though. But, he has used this ability with the help of Madara, Hashirama, and Tobirama to benefit Konoha."

Hatake looked at him, "Your Madara helps Konoha?"

"Yes, why wouldn't he?"

Hatake shrugged, "I guess my Madara and Tobirama are a bit different from yours."

"Huh, so this is your mind Kaka-sensei," Naruto spoke appearing with Inoichi. Naruto looked at Hatake and narrowed his eyes. "Why do you have two of you?"

"Your guardian, and sad's brother," Kakashi deadpanned.

Naruto shook his head, "Alright, Inoichi, when you leave can you say out loud, 'Naruto wants you to enter'? After you say that just leave us be, we can exit when we want."

Inoichi gave a strange look but nodded, "Classified reasons I presume?" He drawled.

"Yes."

Inoichi just shrugged and disappeared. A moment later and Kakashi watched as Madara appeared standing with his arms crossed. "What is going on?"

"Whatever you and Tobirama did was not fixed," Naruto said flatly gesturing towards Hatake.

Madara turned towards him and raised an eyebrow, "Interesting, it seems that there were multiple instances then, and not just the one we fixed," Madara sweatdropped after a moment, "I hope there hasn't been too many instances."

Kakashi gave an eye-smile, "Good to finally see you, and not just know you are reading over my shoulder."

Madara snickered, "Reading the old perverts books are interesting."

Hatake observed the interactions with a slight head tilt, "You look quite different from my Naruto."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Do I now? Well I'm not surprised, we have had different life experiences I presume."

Madara gave a scoff, "Unless the other version of you was experimented on by Orochimaru with edo tensei eyes, than we can assume the other version of you is way different."

Hatake's eye widened, "Edo Tensei eyes?"

"Yes. It's not a big deal," Naruto said waving a hand dismissively.

Kakashi of course filed that information for later.

"What about Mokuton? Do you have it?" Hatake further questioned as Madara started wandering around, pulling out papers and making notes.

"Why would I have Hashi-chan's bloodline?"

"My version of you does."

"Strange, but no I doubt I can have the Mokuton."

"Why do you think that?" Hatake asked.

"I already have a bloodline," Naruto answered shortly, making it clear he would rather not talk about it.

"Oh? What bloodline?" Kakashi asked interested, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Hatake.

Naruto didn't reply.

Madara sighed, "You shouldn't keep it a secret from your sensei, Naruto."

Naruto glared at Madara, "Do not think of telling him Madara. He does not need to know."

Madara narrowed his eyes before smirking, "Sorry brat, but Kakashi should know that you have the Sharingan."

Naruto huffed and turned away not looking at any of them. Kakashi frowned and looked at Madara questioningly. 'He feels like if people knew they would think less of him, despite that he never actually uses it,' Madara signed in response.

Kakashi nodded and went over to Naruto, "Is that all? I never seen you use the sharingan, despite it being a powerful tool."

Naruto just shrugged, "I don't need it."

"Perhaps not, but you should never let a tool go to waste," Hatake spoke.

"Now I have two mutts scolding me..." Naruto muttered falling into a depressive cloud.

Kakashi sighed, "Naruto. You know you have people who support you, Jiraiya and I, your spirits, both the Hokage and Tsuchikage… Deidara and all the guards who have gone with you to your Janken tournaments. If you would actually let the rest of Konoha know how strong you were, they would overlook the fact that you hold Kurama."

Naruto shrugged, "I know… but I don't want Konoha to think I stole the sharingan or anything."

"That's stupid. Idiots who believe that clearly don't know how bloodlines work," Hatake said rolling his eye.

"Naruto, come look over the seal," Madara stated.

Kakashi watched as Naruto went over to Madara and the two started going on about some seal jargon that went over his head. Finally the two nodded. "Alright, the seal is ready to fix this."

"Will I return to my own conscious?"

"You are just a copy of your dimensions consciousness. Your real self was unaffected by the dimensional rift Tobirama and I created."

Hatake frowned at this, "So if me being here will not affect my real self… then why should I leave?"

"Because you are affecting my thoughts and actions and it is interfering with my day to day life," Kakashi answered.

Hatake shrugged, "It's not my fault that your mind is easily influenced by another set of memories."

Kakashi frowned and wondered whether that was supposed to be an insult or a simple fact. If Hatake was anything like himself, than it was meant to just be a fact. Instead he chose to question Hatake on the most important part that he was influenced by, "Why do you hate Kurenai so much?"

Hatake scowled, "She is the reason my first team died."

Kakashi's eyes widened, "What?"

Hatake shrugged, "I was injured and right before my teams first C-rank, Kurenai offered to go with them so they wouldn't have to cancel and pick a different team. She was a tokubetsu jounin, just promoted to that rank, but I thought she would be able to handle any difficulties that came up on the C-rank. I was wrong."

"I see, still having you in my mind is detrimental."

Hatake sighed, "Just one last thing then that I wish to know."

"What is it?"

"What do you know about our bloodline?"

"Our bloodline?" Kakashi questioned.

"Yes, the Sutomuburingan."

"I never even heard of it."

"The Sutomuburingan is the doujutsu of the Raiu clan," Madara answered. "It is activated when the user is struck by a small zap. The doujutsu allows the user to summon storm clouds and to call forth rain and lightning."

Kakashi shook his head, "I never activated it myself."

Hatake just nodded, "Are you sure I can't stay?"

Kakashi debated keeping Hatake around, the man had information about stuff Kakashi didn't know, but by doing so his own mind would be affected by the thoughts of Hatake.

"If you want Hatake to stay, we can create a seal that should minimize his influence, kinda like the seal with me and Kurama, you would be able to chat, but your minds would be kept separate."

"Maa… it is certainly a tough choice," after all how many people can say they had an alternate version of themselves inside their head? But, did he really want Hatake to be in his head?

After another moment he made his choice.


	48. Chapter 48

oOoOo- Asuma -oOoOo

He gave a sigh as he looked over the teams, the first week was over and now they were once more switching teams. The first week had been quite busy, Kakashi's team was a handful to deal with.

Sasuke was stoic and silent, but he kept glaring at Naruto and trying to be better than Naruto.

Naruto wasn't that much better though, in that he choose to ignore Sasuke. Though Asume had heard the rumours that these two fought when they did speak.

Then there was Sakura, stuck in the middle. She obviously likes Sasuke, but it also seems that she had some respect for Naruto. And that made her hesitate in which side to pick.

Still even with his difficulties with getting them to work together, he saw some room for improvement in their skills. For Naruto his use of fire was amazing, but his wind affinity was quite lacking. Asuma had to wonder where Naruto learned to use fire in such a manner, only the Uchiha had ever mastered fire to such an extent.

Perhaps Fugaku taught Naruto, they were somewhat close last he heard. Sasuke wasn't as skilled with fire, but he seemed to be learning a lot of taijutsu. Thing was almost all of his skills were offensive and he lacked defensive skills. Nor did Sasuke seem inclined to learn defensive skills.

Sakura was learning medical ninjutsu, but her overall stamina and chakra pool was weak. She had a strong spiritual half, but her physical half was lacking. He had already set her to start a new morning routine that should help.

He looked over at his students and saw that they looked decent, Shikamaru had a glint in his eye. Looked like he found something interesting. Ino was frowning and looking down at a notebook. Choji seemed the least changed of all.

Finally he looked at Kurenai's team, who he would be getting next, they seemed run down. And they kept sending nervous looks at Kakashi. Who was giving one of his eye smiles. Something had been off with him for the past week, but he seemed a bit better today.

He gave a nod to the other two sensei's and the three split, taking their new teams with them. Asuma gave a smile to Kiba, Shino, and Hinata as he pulled out his shogi board. "Do you three know how to play?"

Kiba shook his head no, but Shino and Hinata both answered positively. "Alright then you will go last Kiba, watch as we play and I'll give you a basic rundown."

"Now Hinata, you will play against me and answer questions as we play. You have 30 seconds to decide what move to make while answering my questions. Sound good?"

"Yes," Hinata answered.

"Let's begin then."

oOoOo- Kurenai -oOoOo

Kurenai looked over Kakashi's team, which was very different than Asuma's team. For one they were obviously a lot more motivated, but to counter that they were way worse in teamwork. And that was just from an initial observation.

She smiled encouragingly, "Alright, let's start by introducing ourselves. My name is Kurenai Yuhi, I like genjutsus, and I dislike those who believe genjutsu is a worthless ninja branch. My dream is to successfully teach my team and watch them become successful ninja."

"My name is Sakura Haruno, I like my teammates, I dislike those who look down on me because I don't come from a clan," Sakura paused for a moment, "My dream is to become a good medic nin."

Kurenai smiled at Sakura and nodded, but it didn't escape her notice that Naruto seemed to be pretty happy when she said she liked her teammates, perhaps that was a recent thing then. Nor did it escape her notice that he gave a small nod. It could be he had one of those thoughts.

Still at least she had a good work ethic, wanting to be a good medical ninja. Maybe she could teach her a few supplemental genjutsus since she obviously has good chakra control.

Kurenai looked to Sasuke next who gave an annoyed look, "I am Sasuke Uchiha. I like my clan. I dislike those who disrespect my clan. I have no dream, instead my goal is to kill Itachi and bring him to justice for his slaughter of my clan," Sasuke muttered with a glower.

Naruto scoffed at that and Sakura blinked and frowned a bit. It was quite a thing to state though, obviously Sasuke was driven. But, he wasn't driven for the right reason. "What about after you kill Itachi?" Kurenai questioned.

"I will work on rebuilding my clan."

Kurenai gave a nod, though she frowned mentaly. She would have to try and break him of his vengeance drive. Finally though her gaze turned to the last student.

The boy gave a bright grin, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like a lot of stuff, I dislike those who judge others unfairly. My dream is to become Hokage."

Very driven, perhaps too much though. She should try and make him less optimistic, and reach for a more reasonable goal. He was the dead last after all... It would crush his spirit to fail at being Hokage.

"You can do it Naruto," Sakura said with a smile.

"Oh? What's this had a change of heart from a couple months ago?"

Sakura seemed to get flustered at that, "Baka! That was before I knew how strong you were."

Kurenai paused at that wondering what Sakura meant at that. Either Naruto had gotten stronger from leaving, or had been better than what the academy reports had indicated.

"Thank you, now I want to see what you three know, so we shall be having a spar. We began a minute ago," She said giving a smile as she disappeared in a shimmer and the three genin realized that they were tied to a tree.

Not a moment later the three of them broke out of the genjutsu. Sakura and Naruto by dispelling it, and Sasuke by activating his clans doujutsu. It seemed he had fully evolved eyes, that was to be expected though after the massacre. He has had plenty of time to train his eyes.

Still he shouldn't rely on his eyes to break out of them, she could still target his other senses. She placed a small genjutsu on all of them and watched as only Naruto seemed to notice as he broke out of them before coming after her.

The three were at least attacking together, but it was in formations and attack patterns that were obviously drilled into them, there was no flexibility in their attacks. A moment later she saw why. She left an opening for them, but they would need to break the pattern to do so, Naruto saw it and moved in to attack, but so did Sasuke and he also moved in.

The two ended up colliding with each other and then Sasuke shouted at Naruto. Despite that Naruto had been the one closer to the opening. Kurenai sighed as she used this time to knock Sakura out. Naruto being the one who tried to stop her.

If Sasuke hadn't been so distracted by yelling at Naruto he would have been able to help. How disappointing. The three of them were skilled, but they lacked teamwork. Mostly due to the Uchiha it seemed.

As she dodged a jutsu from Naruto she sighed, "Taijutsu only now."

First she tested their defensive capabilities, before their offensive capabilities.

Sasuke was an offensive person, he mostly evaded attacks instead of defending, but it worked with his sharingan.

Naruto was of course surprising in that he had high defense, offense, and good evasion skill. Yet, some of his moves seemed similar to Sasuke's taijutsu, but others were completely different. It seemed he was mixing two taijutsu styles together, which was very advanced for a genin.

Sakura had a more academy style taijutsu, but she saw a finesse in her movements and a few non textbook moves that showed she was improving. Decent defense and offense for a genin, but nothing special.

Finally, she called the spar done and told them to do as many laps around the training field as they could. It was time to check their endurance.

oOoOo- Kakakshi -oOoOo

Kakashi looked down at the three students, "So, you're Asuma's brats. Today… you will be doing the bell test," Kakashi said with an eye-grin as he held up two bells.

"Bell test?" Ino asked.

He snickered and let a dark aura come out, watching the three students shiver, it seems like Hatake was useful after all. 'Get on with it,' Hatake prodded as Kakashi continued to build suspense.

"Yes, you three will be fighting me to get these bells, as there are only two bells whoever doesn't get one will be forced to play the role of Ahiruke in Pink Humiliation."

The three students eyed the bells nervously and shared glances. "Well, you have until the timer goes off," he spoke with a grin, setting the timer to go off in three hours. An hour passed with none of the three making an appearance.

'I wonder what they are planning?' Kakashi thought to Hatake, who he had decided to keep around. Hokage-sama still had to be informed, and it would be his decision that either kept Hatake around, or got rid of him. Kakashi hopped the Hokage allowed Hatake to stay.

'I don't know, in my world the three had developed a few good trapping strategies.'

'Hmm, ah well, they need to come to me to get the bells, so I will wait to see what they are planning.'

Another hour passed, and Kakashi had moved to sit in a tree as he read an Icha Icha book, though he had heard that Jiraiya was working on a new book for the Humiliation series.

The timer went off and there had been no sign of the three. Kakashi blinked and searched for the three missing students and found them nowhere on the training field.

"Those three brats just left?!" Kakashi spoke out loud.

Static fizzled around him, charging the air as his eye narrowed, 'Oh that is it… they are going to pay…'

'At least they showed teamwork in their running away,' Hatake spoke up with a snicker.

The next hour he spent hunting them down, when he found them he made his presence clear, and fully utilized Hatake's scary aura skills. He chased Asuma's brats all over Konoha for the rest of the day, not letting them have a break longer than a couple minutes, but not catching them either.

When night fell he gathered them up and told them to meet bright and early at the gate at 5 am.

The next morning he only met them briefly to tell them to do warmups with Gai and Lee. Then he sat back and smirked as the three genin tried to keep up with the two taijutsu users as at first they had to run, and then try and do the push-ups and sit ups.

After three hours of that he gathered them back up and watched as they collapsed. "Now that you have done your warm up, let's start our training for the day. Ino, Shikamaru, you two are going to run laps around the training ground while my clone chases you and throws kunai and shuriken at whoever is the slowest. Choji you will be sparing against me."

"Start running," Kakashi said with a vicious eye grin as he created a clone.

Let it be said that he can be extremely petty when he wanted to be.

Hatake gave great advice as well.

Shikamaru yelped as a kunai hit him.

Choji whimpered as Kakashi started sparring with him. For the first ten minutes he observed Choji's fighting style, and then for the rest of the hour he pointed out weaknesses and things that could be improved.

About half way through the hour dedicated to Choji his shadow clone popped and the memories of Ino and Shikamaru setting a trap and dispelling his clone returned. "So that's how they want to play it?"

Kakashi summoned two shadow clones which shared identical looks as they leapt into the forest to hunt down the two troublesome students. Yelps of pain greeted his ears a couple minutes later and he chuckled.

After Choji's hour was up he took Ino and worked with her for an hour, before working with Shikamaru. 'I think this will be a very fun weak,' Kakashi thought with a vicious grin as he gathered up the three exhausted students.

"One hour break for lunch, and then we will be taking three D-rank missions."

Asuma's team groaned and collapsed, ripping into the food Kakashi handed them.

'Heh, just wait until they see what missions we have lined up for them.'

Inuzuka kennel cleaning, waste management, and finally sponge baths. Ah yes, he could be so very petty.

* * *

 **A/n: So yet another chapter and for now Hatake is a feature, but I did leave myself an opening if I want to get rid of him, via the Hokage saying to get rid of Hatake. Now some of you may notice similarities between Hatake and Akuma, but I want to say that Hatake is not Akuma-sensei. Yes Hatake also does not like Kurenai, but for very different and more valid reasons. Hatake is not from any other fanfiction, at least not yet. So he is completely original to Gosutoai.**

 **Anyways here is an Omake made by one of you fans... Unfortunately I seemed to have lost who created it, but I believe it was either Luckyshot8 or Viate. So if I'm wrong please let me know. Anyways this Omake takes place after Deidara and Onoki had gotten over their arguments.**

 _ **Omake:** Deidara and Onoki go Fishing._

Onoki: want to go...fishing?

Deidara: So long as I can blow up the lake old man.

Onoki:...bet I can blow up more fish than you

And cue the paperwork for Onoki later XD

Onoki: oh I got a big on-

BOOM

Onoki: you killed my fish!


	49. Chapter 49

oOoOo- Asuma -oOoOo

"So this is it, huh?" Asuma muttered to his fellow jounin as they gathered together at the end of the week. The past two weeks had been pretty intense, with a lot of training going on.

"Yeah, it is," Kakashi nodded.

"Shall we get started with our assessments then?"

"Sure, Sakura, come on up for your individual assessment."

The three teachers watched Sakura as she walked up to them, clearly nervous at being the first one called up.

"Sakura, from my observations you have a strong mind, but your body lacked physical training, so I set you to do a new morning routine, how is that working out for you?" Asuma asked.

"It's going great Asuma-Sensei, even though it's only been two weeks, I feel a lot better."

"Good, keep up the routine for the next month, and then increase the amount a bit. With you taking up Iryojutsu you are well on your way to becoming a chunin."

Sakura beamed happily, "Now, with me I taught you a couple of genjutsus to supplement your current skills. Genjutsus will never truly be your strength, but you can make a great subskill out of them. I would recommend only mastering the two genjutsus I taught you."

"Now, Sakura, you were my student first and I can say that I have seen a lot of development from you, as such you deserve a reward. If there is something you want, let me know, and I will see what can be done. For now I believe you are doing well and to continue with what you are currently doing."

Sakura nodded excitedly.

"Take your time to decide," Kakashi said with an eye smile as he dismissed her.

"Kiba, come on up," Kurenai called out.

"Your skills are improving," Kakashi said with an eye-grin as Kiba walked up, his steps and chakra hidden to mask his presence.

Kiba gave a fanged grin, "I really enjoy being able to sneak up on people."

"Kiba, while with me we worked on a technique so that you could transform into Akamaru, have you refined that technique anymore?"

"Yeah, I have," Kiba answered, but didn't elaborate.

"While you worked with me we discovered you had a wind affinity and worked on a couple wind jutsu's. I recommend you keep up developing that new technique of yours, it will be a great benefit in the upcoming exams."

Kurenai gave a nod, "I agree, continue training in what they were teaching you for now."

They dismissed Kiba, "He sure improved a lot under you two."

"Well Kiba seems to have an inclination for infiltration, despite being loud. I just helped to refine those skills and point it out to him," Kakashi pointed out waving a hand dismissively.

"Ino!" Kakashi barked out with a small chuckle of amusement as the girl jumped in surprise before rushing over.

"Jeez, you have it out for my students?" Asuma questioned as he saw how nervous Ino seemed around Kakashi.

"They annoyed me."

Asuma winced, Kakashi had always been petty, but for some reason his pettiness had increased.

"Ino with me I increased your physical strength and pushed you past your limit daily, I believe I have also given you a glimpse that the ninja world isn't all roses and sunshine, that you will be forced to do disgusting things that you won't want to do. Remember this lesson and reflect upon it."

Asuma watched as Ino shuddered a look of horror crossing her face, "What did you do to her?" He whispered to Kakashi as Kurenai spoke to Ino.

"While you had been with me we went over your current skills and decided what you could do to improve it, you decided to focus on poisons, how is that coming along?"

"The more unsavory D-ranks," Kakashi answered with an eye grin.

"I think I am doing decent."

"Wow, my team really annoyed you, huh?"

"They ran instead of doing the bell test."

Asuma winced as Kurenai shot him a pointed look, "Ino, I hope you take in the lessons given to heart, and if you need help understanding then you should speak with one of us, or your father."

With that said he dismissed Ino.

"Shino, you're up next!" Kurenai called out.

Shino walked up and looked at them silently. "When you were learning from me, you were forced to learn how to dodge, and that you can't always count on your bug clone to trick your enemies. You also already know your affinity for water techniques, which is uncommon in an Aburame. So I taught you a technique and helped you learn what you needed to do in order to strengthen your water affinity," Kakashi said.

"While you were training with me we mainly focused on strategy and using your available resources innovatively. While we didn't so much work on ninjutsu or taijutsu, the skills of the mind should not be dismissed so easily.

Kurenai smiled, "A water affinity sounds like it will be very beneficial if you can learn how to use it with your Kikachu."

Shino pushed his glasses up, "Do not worry about that sensei, why? Because I have already started the process of mutating my Kikachu to be of a water variant."

"That's wonderful news, alright head on back," Kurenai said dismissing Shino.

"Choji!" Asuma called waving the rotund boy over.

Kurenai smiled, "While with me you proved to have quite decent chakra, stamina, and endurance. This is good for your more offensive style, but I also pointed out that you were quite short range and only focused on your clan's taijutsu and techniques. Have you found something to help improve upon that?"

"Yes, actually. Thanks to Kakashi I have found a weapon I will be buying."

"That sounds good, I look forward to seeing what sort of weapon you picked out," Asuma said.

Choji just gave a nod.

"How did your time with Choji go?" Asuma asked Kakashi.

"Same sort of lesson as Ino, nothing new."

With that they dismissed Choji and called forth the next student, "Naruto!"

Naruto walked up to them, his arms crossed and a blank look on his face. Next to him Kakashi sighed, "Knock it off brat."

Naruto stuck his tongue out, but he did seem to relax an impish smile on his face.

"When Naruto was with me we focused on advancing his wind chakra," Asuma answered.

"With me I helped to refine his genjutsu breaking skill. I was fairly surprised by just how good Naruto's chakra control was though."

"Really? Oh, I suppose that's right, you aren't as familiar with Naruto as Kakashi and I are," Asuma said.

"I'm sure you have a list of things you will be working on, just make sure to not overwork yourself," Kakashi said waving a hand dismissively.

"Shikamaru!" Kakashi called out getting the lazy student to make his way over.

"When I spent the week training with Shikamaru I discovered he was very talented at genjutsus, I recommend he learns genjutsus to compliment his shadows."

"I just helped to remove some of his laziness," Kakashi answered flippantly.

"Troublesome Sensei," Shikamaru grumbled in agreement.

Asuma nodded to Kurenai, "I will make sure that Shikamaru continues to learn genjutsu's then."

"Hinata you're up next!" Kurenai called out after they dismissed Shikamaru.

The girl walked up and she actually looked different than she used to, though only slightly, Hinata now had a bo staff on her back.

"Hinata while working with me learned that her Hyuga stance was ineffective due to having a fire element instead of an earth element, so we worked on creating a new style to suit her better, and I taught her the great fireball jutsu."

"I further improved her new stance and recommended getting a bow staff to help fend off attackers, while she just has a regular staff now, I recommended that she save for one that can channel chakra."

"Alright, I will help Hinata further develop her new stance then. Is there anything you would like to add Hinata?"

"No Sensei… what Kakashi-sensei and Asuma-sensei said has covered everything," Hinata spoke in a soft voice.

"Alright, you're free to go."

"Now for our most troublesome student," Asuma muttered to his fellow jounin. "Sasuke."

Kurenai sighed slightly as Sasuke walked over. Asuma raised an eyebrow as the teen glared at Kurenai, seems he didn't like the genjutsu mistress for some reason.

"Sasuke, while training with me I recommended you learn some defensive jutsu's, have you found anything?" Asuma spoke up.

The Uchiha crossed his arms and scowled, "No."

"Did you even bother to look?" Kurenai questioned.

"No," Sasuke once more said.

Asuma sighed, "I would recommend the next level of earth dome, the double layer earth dome."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted.

"While Sasuke was with me, I helped him to learn how to break out of genjutsus without relying on his eyes."

Sasuke growled, "You mean you tortured me with those genjutsus."

Kurenai gave a smile and Kakashi and Asuma shuddered, "Nonsense, I only helped increase your mental fortitude."

"You showed me Naruto's and Sakura's death! You forced me to watch myself kill them!"

"It's not my fault that is your greatest fear," Kurenai commented looking down at Sasuke, "If you care so much about your teammates that losing them is your greatest fear, no losing them by your own hand, than you should perhaps act like you care around them." Kurenai's gaze was sharp as she stared at Sasuke, "If you don't you may push away your teammates permanently."

"That's what I want! I don't want to be friends with them!"

"Why do you not want to be friends with your teammates?" Kurenai questioned, "Do you see yourself above them?" She added tauntingly.

"If I become friends with them, I'll be tempted to kill them for power!" Sasuke shouted back angrily, before he froze as he realized what he said.

"Kill them for power?" Asuma asked.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and remained silent.

"He is talking about the Mangekyou sharingan," Kakashi answered. "It is a common belief that you have to kill your best friend to get it," Kakashi raised his headband and Asuma watched in shock as they sharingan eye twisted and formed a new design.

It was gone a moment later and Kakashi covered his eye again.

"Y-you?" Sasuke stuttered out.

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye, "My teammate threw herself in front of my attack, in order to protect Konoha. Despite that I have this eye and its power, do you see me using it?"

"No," Sasuke answered the question.

"Exactly, you do not need to have the Mangekyou sharingan in order to be strong. Besides bearing the eye brings a terrible price the more you use it. Using the eye makes you go blind."

"Is there a way to stop the blindness?" Kurenai asked.

Kakashi hummed, "Well…" He paused and Sasuke and Kurenai leaned in closer. Asuma rolled his eyes, "I don't know," Kakashi finished with an eye-smile.

"Why are you like this sensei?" Sasuke questioned shaking his head.

"Maa Maa, just relax Sasuke," Kakashi said with a chuckle, earning a glare from the young teen. Kakashi straightened up turning serious, "Sasuke. Don't keep pushing your teammates just because you think you will be tempted to kill them. Naruto will stop you if you try to harm him or Sakura anyways."

Sasuke gritted his teeth, "How is the dobe so strong?"

"Hmm, well… he has been training for years, he just never bothered to do well in the academy since the stuff was so easy."

"Why didn't he graduate early then?"

"He didn't want to, though I don't know why."

"Hn."

"Well, go back to the others," Kakashi said waving Sasuke away to the other students.

"The chunin exams starts in two days, do you think one day is enough of a break?" Asuma questioned looking at the other two.

"It will have to be," Kurenai answered.

"Alright, let's tell the kids to take tomorrow off then, no training allowed," Kakashi said.

The three walked over to the students who were waiting to be fully dismissed. "We have went over your individual assessments, as you know the chunin exams start in two days, so tomorrow you will have the day off, no training allowed. Rest up and prepare yourselves," Asuma commanded.

The students nodded.

"Good, you're dismissed."

The rookie nine all left quickly splitting up and heading in all different directions.

* * *

 **A/N: So, it's been awhile. I had this chapter written for awhile, but forgot to post it till now. I hope you enjoy this while I work on trying to get past my block. I would recommend reading Unconventional Missing-Nin. It's co-written between me and Esellyn. Whose stories are amazing.**

 **And if you are a Kingdom Hearts fan please go take a look at RikuKingdomHearts page, whom I have a co-write as well, called Souls of the Heart.**

 **So while I'm stuck in a Naruto rut, you can enjoy those two wonderful author's works.**


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